Keep the Magic Alive
by Aiijuin
Summary: You can leave your dreams behind and forget about them completely, but sometimes your dreams won’t let you forget about them as Sarah and Jareth soon discover. Fantasy finally comes crashing into reality and the stars begin to move themselves.
1. Chapter 1

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 1  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__I'll begin this story with a small personal introduction:  
__If you haven't read my profile, you should know that I only write Happily-Ever-After stories, although they tend to get dark and twisted at times, they always work out in the end. I hope you enjoy my second installation of a Sarah and Jareth romance story. Thank you! __**This story is has several dark themes, and is rated M+**_

* * *

**Chapter 1: Happily Ever After?**

Things had _almost_ run smoothly for Sarah and Jareth during the last sixteen years that they had been together in Manhattan. Sarah had been working as a liaison to important clientele who procured space within the Metropolitan Museum of Art for their long-term art displays. Jareth, in the meantime, had gone from small-time musician in a local Soho nightclub act, to managing new prospective entertainment that looked hopeful. He seemed to have a wonderful talent for picking the perfect bands and placing them into their appropriate club settings.

Every night, they would return home to their rather cozy, but cramped middle-sized apartment flat on the borders of lower Queens. It would have been roomier, but they had their three growing children in which they had to share their space with. All of them were girls, who shared a large master bedroom that had once belonged to their parents. Sarah and Jareth, in the meantime, took the smaller room, since they didn't feel they needed as much space as their daughters did.

Julia and Jennifer were fraternal twins and they were the oldest of the trio. At fifteen years old, the twins were in a constant upheaval over boys, clothes, and make-up. Most of the mornings, the pair of them could be heard squabbling over bathroom space and who stole whose shirt and whether furry boots were in or out of style again. Then, they usually chattered the morning away, while Sarah and Jareth were trying to get ready for work. For the most part, all Jennifer and Julia usually received was partial attention from either of their parents, because Jareth mostly worked late and needed a caffeine jolt at this point in the morning, while Sarah was checking her iPhone schedule to see who she had to _wine and dine_ throughout the day at the Met.

Sarah and Jareth's youngest daughter, Sahara was the quiet one. She usually had a 500-page novel attached to her hand, while her long hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail at the center of her head. Sahara was commonly withdrawn and moody, but Sarah assured Jareth that it was just a _phase_ and reminded him that the twins had gone through it as well.

Despite the fact that the twins were not identical, all three girls basically had the same traits that made them look very similar to their mother. Sahara's hair was more of a dark auburn than a deep brunette, but otherwise she still had the same telltale green eyes that her mother and sisters shared. Julia and Jennifer were tall and very thin, while Sahara was at the 'stumpy' growing stage, so she hadn't slimmed down yet, and was very self-conscious of her physical appearance.

The three girls eventually scurried down the stairs, out the front door, and then ran five blocks to school before the bell rang every morning. It left Sarah and Jareth alone in peace for fifteen short minutes, before she had to leave and he had to jump into the shower to get ready for work.

Sarah was looking at her calendar for this morning's clientele lineup as Jareth sipped his coffee and read the local newspaper. After several more minutes of silence, Sarah finally said outloud, "That's bad. Wait a minute. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, ….sixteen, seventeen…. _Oh my god_."

Jareth raised his eyebrow, "Problem, Precious?"

"I can't believe that I could have lost track of that again," Sarah blinked remorsefully.

"Did we miss our anniversary again this year?" Jareth asked.

Sarah smirked, "No. Did you forget what day that was? That's three times now…"

"The thirteenth of something…" Jareth returned the grin as he knew that she became miffed whenever he pretended that he had forgotten their wedding anniversary.

"I swear, Jareth…" Sarah stammered, as his smile widened behind the newspaper. "You're forgetting more and more things lately. Next, I suppose it will be your name."

When she realized that he was snickering behind his paper, she snatched it from his hand and jokingly hit him lightly over the head. "Of course," Sarah continued, "I guess I'm not the one to point the finger at this moment. You're not going to believe what I forgot again."

"Did you leave the keys in the car and lock the doors again, Darling?" Jareth giggled.

"Hardly," Sarah had to pause and think on it for a moment, before she looked at the hook on the wall to make sure they were still there. After reassuring the keys were really hers, she turned back to him and said, "I forgot to pick up my birth control prescription at the pharmacist last month. I've been out for weeks…"

"Ah, so we're counting because…," Jareth began.

"Yeah." Sarah finished.

_Silence. _

It's not as if anymore had to be said on that subject. Neither of them was ready for another baby at this point. They were living comfortably, but didn't really have excessive time, or income for another child. They also knew that they lacked the room for any more children, and a fourth would definitely contribute to their ongoing space problem. The landlord would truly protest.

Sarah finally spoke as she began to button up her jacket and head off to work, "Look. I'll schedule a doctor's appointment tonight and get this problem checked out. It might just be nothing like last time."

_Nothing? Tra-la-la…_

Jareth only nodded and finished his coffee. Sarah checked to make sure that she had her keys, iPhone, and briefcase before opened the door of their apartment. She and Jareth kissed their goodbyes for the day, and Sarah took the elevator down to the parking garage next to her complex.

He moaned as he put his head in his hands. Jareth tried to think of a time when things were easier, but for some strange reason, he couldn't recall anything beyond the accident, not to mention that _those dreams_ were starting again. He decided that later on throughout the week, if his schedule permitted, he would contact the psychiatrist to regulate his medications again.


	2. Reordered Time

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 2  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is has several dark themes, and is rated M+**_

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**Chapter 2: Reordered Time**

Just as Sarah had feared, she was pregnant. After discussing their options together in Central Park, they decided to allow everything to progress to the next trimester. Unfortunately, this meant that they had to completely rearrange their lives in order to accommodate the new arrival. Sarah had told her boss that she needed to arrange maternity leave six weeks before the middle of summer the following year. Jareth had to tell the landlord that they would not be renewing their lease again in January.

Both ,Jareth and Sarah King, had to confront their daughters with the situation, just before Thanksgiving break. The twins protested, because they didn't want to move away from their friends in the middle of the school year. Sahara didn't comment either way, but just pressed her book closer to her face and ignored everybody.

The King family tried to find a larger apartment within the same school district, so the girls wouldn't have to be transferred, but everything was far too expensive, especially with another baby on the way. Karen and Robert Williams offered to find their daughter a place closer to them in the suburbs, but Sarah refused. She was happier living farther away from her stepmother, since the two didn't always get along on the best terms.

Finally, just after Christmas, the family found a split-level home in southern New Jersey, near the capital of Trenton. It was easier to afford then North Jersey and conveniently located near the train station that would take Sarah directly into New York City every morning and bring her home again in the evening. However, her travel time was increased by two hours as she had to wake-up at four-thirty, in order to catch the train by five in the morning.

Jareth, on the other hand, moved his management business into the neighboring city of Philadelphia. This was an easier career move for him, since he was essentially the owner anyway. The only thing he needed to do was become acquainted with the popular clubs within the City of Brotherly Love.

Unfortunately, for the entire King family, Sarah was hardly around anymore. She awoke before her family, and came home long after Jareth had gone to work in the evening and her daughters were in bed sleeping. This schedule continued until February, when Sarah began to feel ill.

After she started suffering terrible visual disturbances, headaches, and swollen-ankles that nearly prevented her from getting home one evening, she scheduled an appointment with her doctor. It was discovered that she had was experiencing preeclampsia toxemia, which was a rare form of high-blood pressure that some women develop during pregnancy. She was required to take an early maternity leave as a result and remain bedridden throughout most of the day. Jareth had to cut back his hours in order to attend to her, but this arrangement placed a strain on their finances, as well as their marriage.

The girls didn't make things any easier on the couple, as Sahara hid away in her room and spoke to no one, while Jennifer and Julia took turns getting suspended from school for fighting and smoking.

Jareth also began having the waking dreams again, and it didn't seem like the medications were working this time. He usually woke Sarah up three or four times throughout the night by sleepwalking and wandering about the house talking and singing. By the time baby Jaime was born in late April, Jareth and Sarah's marriage was completely on the rocks.

However, the hardest blow for Sarah and Jareth came, when the doctors had discovered that there was a problem with their tiny son. Months after he was born, Sarah noticed that something was wrong with his eyes. When she took him to the pediatrician, it was discovered that he had a rare cancer in his eyes called Retinoblastoma. After months of treatment and operations to remove the tumors from their child's eyes, Jaime was miraculously cleared of the life-threatening condition. However, he was rendered blind for the rest of his life.

Sarah blamed herself as the doctors assured her that it was neither she, nor her husband's fault in the end.

Despite his handicap, Jaime was a very good baby, but he required extra care because of his lack of vision, and Sarah and Jareth had to make a huge decision about who would stay home and raise their son. After weighing their options, Sarah returned to her job in the Big Apple, because she had full medical benefits and made better money, while Jareth decided to sell his business and stay home with his son.

It wasn't easy on the entire family, and they had to make incredible adjustments as they had during the move. Sahara finally snapped one evening and ran away from home, when she got tired of Jaime's crying while he was teething. Jareth had to ask Jennifer to watch Jaime while he drove around town in order to find his youngest daughter.

When he returned back home after retrieving Sahara, he noticed that his fifteen-year old twins had suddenly had an unexplainable attitude adjustment for the better. He didn't ask any questions, but they immediately started helping their father with the baby and their grades even improved in school.


	3. The Book

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 3  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__This story is dark at times, and therefore is marked __**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Book**

Three years passed by quickly and Sahara was still causing Jareth and Sarah no end of intensive problems. At fifteen, she had gone from withdrawn, chubby, and nerdy, to gothy, super-thin, and rebellious. She had cut off most of her hair into choppy layers and dyed it pitch-black. She also wore a ton of makeup that made her look like a vampire in Jareth's opinion. Her music was usually cranked up as loud as she could turn it, and although Jareth enjoyed music, he didn't enjoy it at ear-splitting levels.

She was also hospitalized twice for cutting her arms and legs, and had to be placed on medication and therapy for possible bipolar disorder. Most of her evenings she spent on the internet chatting with strange people that Jareth was believed were convincing her to do the bad things to herself.

Jareth himself was getting worn out and desperately sought a vacation. While their finances didn't allow them such luxuries, something just as wonderful had happened….

A career, similar to the one that Sarah had at the Met, had just opened up in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She immediately jumped on the opportunity as she resigned from her job in NYC and began the new one in Philly two weeks later.

The entire family seemed relieved that Sarah had better hours and spent more time at home with them at last. Of course, Sahara pretended that she didn't care, but Sarah could tell that she did.

Jareth was especially ecstatic that Sarah was going to spend more time with the family again. Their communication had been absolutely zero over the last three years, with the exception of a fifteen-minute long-distance phone call everyday. The whole situation with her work schedule, the care for Jaime, and the stress that Sahara was causing him, _almost_ caused Jareth to simply walk out of his marriage with Sarah over a year ago. He kept telling himself that he would wait one more day and things would get better.

He was happy that he had, because Sarah was home again like he had wished and she immediately took control of Sahara and placed her under a tight regiment. Sahara balked, "It's not fair! Why can't I talk to my friends on the net when I want?"

Jareth was about to explain, when Sarah held up her hand and said, "Because we're your parents, Sahara, and there should be no further explanation! Now go get your dirty clothes out of your room, and put them in the hamper. After that, I want you to wash the dishes, dry them, and then put them in their proper places inside of the cabinets. _Don't give me that look_! And don't think that I haven't heard what you've been putting your father and sisters through."

Sahara yelled, "How would you know? You don't even know anything about my life or my plans! Your job is more important than I am! It always was! I hate you!"

Sarah tried to call to Sahara as the teen clamored up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her. Jareth patted Sarah on the shoulder and said, "I'll talk to her, Darling."

Sarah nodded and walked into the bathroom with tears in her eyes. She knew that her family was more important that her job, and if she could have stayed home with them for the last three years, then she wouldn't have given it a second thought. She jumped as she thought that she saw monsters looking back at her in the darkened bathroom mirror and tried to turn on the lights.

Sarah called to Jareth, "Honey, I think we blew a fuse in the bathroom. The lights aren't working."

Jareth marched back downstairs with Jaime in his hands. He flicked the light switch a couple of times as the toddler giggled within his arms. "Mmm," he began. "Do you know that's the fourth time this month that I've had to replace the bulbs in this room?"

"Are you sure it's not a fuse?" Sarah asked.

Jareth nodded, "Absolutely."

"Maybe we have the wrong wattage light bulbs in this room," Sarah muttered as she incoherently flicked the switch again and again.

Jareth grabbed her hand and said, "Leave it. I'll check it in the morning."

Jaime interrupted and asked enthusiastically, "Mommy! Will you read me a story tonight?"

Sarah smiled and said in a baby-voice, "Of course I will, Sweetie!"

Jareth smirked and warned her jokingly, "Oh, no… Get ready to read '_the book'_."

Sarah blinked and asked, "Which book?"

"Remember the one that you used to read when you were a teenager?" Jareth asked. "At least, that's what your stepmother said that you always read. Apparently, Karen had accidentally shipped the book off to your brother, Toby and his wife, and he promptly forwarded it to us with great delight…. I don't think he likes the story very much, since he was anxious to part with it in a most expedited fashion."

"The cheapskate actually shipped it over-night Fed-Ex?" Sarah laughed.

Jareth nodded as he placed little Jaime on the ground and the child took off towards the living room to grab the book. Even though Jaime couldn't see, he had memorized the house layout and managed to run through the halls at a fantastic speed. Jareth's smile dropped as soon as Jaime had cleared out of earshot and he whispered, "I think Jaime's beginning to suffer from the same condition that I am, Sarah. He's starting to have the dreams at night and he sleepwalks everywhere."

"Jar, you don't have any genetic mental condition," Sarah scolded him. "The psychologists said that it was probably residual past memories that had been distorted from the accident…. Which reminds me, have you started to recall anything yet?"

"No, it's been almost nineteen years, and I've not remembered anything beyond my recovery point," Jareth shook his head. "What about you? Have you recalled anything yet, my Dear?"

Sarah shook her head as Jaime reentered the room with a little red, leather-bound book. After she picked up her son and cradled him within her arms, she answered, "Nothing. I only remember waking up in the hospital a month after it happened."

"After _what_ happened-ed…Mommy?" Jaime asked sweetly.

Sarah smiled at her son as he felt her face to see if she was smiling. When he determined that she was, he let out another giggle. She looked at the book in his hands and read, "'_The Labyrinth'_ Mmm, Karen said I used to read this?"

Jareth shrugged, "You're asking the wrong person, Dearest. How would I recall either way? To be honest, I don't think I knew you when you were fifteen…"


	4. Repeat Offense

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 4  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__This story is dark, and therefore is marked __**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 4: Repeat Offense**

Sarah sat down to read the book as Jareth prepared some coffee in the kitchen for he and his wife. Jaime clapped his hands and pulled a cupie-doll from the box next to the sofa. He twirled it in his hands and Sarah grimaced at the ugliness of the toy. She opened the book, which didn't seem to have much picturesque content inside.

It looked like a simple play book to her with a brief narration in the beginning, and Sarah had to remind herself that it didn't matter if Jaime grabbed the most beautiful picture book in his hands or the most boring article without pictures. He wouldn't notice anyway. Only the story mattered to him anyhow.

Jareth returned with two mugs of hot coffee in his hands as he cuddled next to his wife and son on the couch. She placed her head on his shoulder and Jaime stretched out into the laps of both of his parents, while he twiddled with fuchsia colored hair of the plastic-brown doll. Sarah cleared her throat and read outloud, "Once upon a time, in a Castle Beyond the Goblin City, deep within the Underground, there lived a Goblin King."

Jaime clapped and said, "His name is daddy's name…"

Sarah looked over at Jareth while he shrugged at her and remarked, "Our son has quite an imagination… but honestly as you read onward, you'll find that that Goblin-chap sounds like a retched baby-nabbing monster to me. Not sure why Jaime associates me with him…"

Jamie narrowed his eyes and said, "Shh! Daddy, this is the best part!"

Sarah raised her eyebrows and continued to read, "One day, the Goblin King had fallen in love with a girl and had given her special magic powers in which she could use for whatever her heart desired. She only needed to say the magic words to use them."

Jaime giggled and shouted loudly, "I wish! I wish!"

Jareth ran his fingers through his son's golden blond hair as the little boy began to swing the doll back and forth above him. Sarah continued, "The girl whom the Goblin King had fallen in love with, had a stepmother who always made her stay home with her baby brother. And the baby was a spoiled child that wanted everything for himself, while the young girl was practically a slave…. _Wow, I can see why Toby hates this story…_"

Jaime scolded, "Mommy! That's not the words of the story!"

Sarah pinched him lightly on the nose and made a honking sound, while Jareth laughed. She continued after Jaime settled again, "But what no one knew is that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and had given her _certain_ powers…."

Sarah turned to Jareth and said, "If I had certain powers, the first thing I'd wish for is for more hours in a day. I can't seem to get anything done at home anymore…"

Jareth chuckled and nodded in agreement, while Jaime nagged again, "_Mommy_…"

"Okay, I'm sorry…I'm reading.." Sarah apologized. "So, one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help. 'Say you're right words', the Goblins said, 'And we'll take the baby to the Goblin City, and you will be free.'"

Jareth yawned, he had heard the story so many times, that he swore they were starting to affect his ever-growing residual memory problems. Sarah took a sip from her coffee mug before continuing onward, "But the girl knew, that the King of the Goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and ever, and turn it into a goblin. So, the girl suffered in silence, until one night when she was tired from a day of housework, and hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother…"

At that moment, Sahara ran down the stairs and added, "Or her _real mother_ and she could no longer stand it…so she cried…"

Jaime shouted, thinking that his sister was enacting the story outloud, replied with a laugh, "No! Sahara, don't say the magic words!"

Sarah narrowed her eyes, when she heard the 'real mother' remark. She knew that Sahara couldn't wait to jump down her throat with an argument as the girl rolled up her sleeves before she prepared to wash the dishes in the kitchen. Sarah noticed the cut marks on her arms and asked, "Are you doing that again? Do you want us to put you in a hospital? _Why?_ Why would you do that?"

Sahara pouted and ignored her mother's question. Jaime became flustered as he began to paw at Sarah's shirt, in order to prod her back into reading "_The Labyrinth_". Sarah stroked his face gently in order to settle him, but she kept eye contact with her youngest daughter and Jareth finally said sternly, "Sahara! Answer your mother's question!"

Sahara's eyes filled with angry tears and she blustered, "I hate you all! I just wish….I wish…"

Jennifer and Julia ran downstairs to see what all of the commotion was about. They could see that their sister was throwing a tantrum again. Sarah snapped, "If wishes were horses, then we'd all take a ride."

"OOH! I wish the goblins would take you _ALL_ away, now, now, _now_! _RIGHT NOW_!" Sahara screamed with her eyes closed.

She ran back upstairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her. She pounded her hands down on her windowsill, and noticed that a strong lightening storm must have rolled in while she had been brooding on the stairs for the last fifteen minutes. She glanced farther out the window to see the severity of the storm.

However, she flung back with a scream when an elegant white barn owl began to flutter and claw at her window. Sahara tried to turn on her bedroom lights to frighten the beast away, but the switch didn't work. She fled from the room and ran downstairs to tell her father what was going on. However, she nearly tripped down the narrow staircase, when she realized that the house was black.

_All of the lights are out_, Sahara thought. Then, she shouted in a paranoid manner, "Okay, quit screwing around. I'm _SO_ not frightened!"

She walked into the living room, where her parents had sat just moments before, but the room was also dark and empty. Sahara grumbled nervously, "This isn't funny guys! I'm totally not laughing! You all suck!"

Sahara spun around and moved cautiously into the kitchen. She hit the coat rack with her knee and bent down to rub it. "That really hurt! Okay, I get it! I'm sorry, alright? You can come out now…. Mom? Daddy? Jaime?"

The scratching began at the backdoor of the house and Sahara let out a yelp. It was the owl again. She pressed herself against the wall of the kitchen and picked up the landline phone next to her, in order to dial for help.

_No dial tone…_

Sahara grabbed a cast-iron pan from the rack overhead and clutched it tightly in both of her hands. She lied, "Leave me alone! I'm armed and I've called the police! I mean it! I'll totally shoot you if you come through that door!"

At that, the door crashed open with intense winds behind it, and the barn owl began to harass Sahara as it fluttered over her head and caused her to drop the pan while she quickly covered her face. When she looked up again, the winds had stopped and the storm had calmed to an eerie silence. She saw someone standing in the door. Although dark, the person seemed to be illuminated by their fairness. At first she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman from the hair, but then as the figure drew closer, she knew the cloaked person was a 'he'.

The Goblin King stood in Sahara's kitchen with his head turned slightly to the side. He walked closer and closer still, as she backed farther and farther into a corner by the sink. The girl asked, "Who are you?"

"You know very well, who I am," the Goblin King said.

"But…that book isn't real. You can't be the Goblin King!" Sahara blinked and then added, "Actually, to be honest, you sound like my dad, and look like my dad wearing a really bad wig and extreme eye shadow…. _Daddy, is that really you_?"

"I'm afraid not, Sahara," The Goblin King smirked with his head tilted in amusement. "You wished them away, don't you remember? They're _all_ gone."

Sahara was about to grab at the Goblin King's hair to see if it was fake, but then he produced a glass crystal from thin air. She stepped back again and said, "But I was angry at them… I didn't really mean what I said, you know."

"Oh, you didn't?" The golden-haired king asked with a sideways grin and his eyebrows raised high. He began to twirl the crystal back and forth from hand to hand and Sahara felt mesmerized by its smooth motions.

She asked, "What is that?"

"It's a crystal, nothing more….but if you turn it this way, it will show you your dreams, Sahara," the Goblin King finished as the girl gulped dry air down her throat.

She was having trouble buying this trick. If her parents were playing a joke on her, then it was an elaborate one. The king continued, "Do you want it?"

Sahara didn't know what to say, but the magic man finished, "Then, forget about them… all of them. Now, go back to your room, and play with your iPod and chat on the internet. You have no worries anymore and no responsibilities. No family to burden you or cause you sorrow and grief. You're free, Sahara, free as a bird."

"But I need my family back, please!" Sahara pleaded.

The Goblin King help up the crystal and purred, "Sahara…"

The crystal became a living snake as he uncoiled it with both of his gloved hands and said, "Don't defy me!"

His eyes opened wide as he tossed the snake at her and it wrapped around her neck. She screamed as she tried to pull it off of her, but when she did, it turned into a gaudy-colored scarf and fell to the floor as it became a gremlin or monster of some sort. Sahara wasn't really sure.

The Goblin King cackled and said, "You're no match for me, Sahara."

"But you don't understand…" Sahara started, "I been having problems and I really need my family right now."

The Goblin King closed his eyes in agitation. He sighed and said, "Fine. Whatever. You said, you hated them. If you really want them back, they're there."

The cloaked man pointed out the back door of the King household and Sahara saw a new world bathed in a warm-orange light stand before her eyes. As she turned to glance behind her again, her house was gone. The Goblin King pointed forward and said, "Hello? They're over this way, Sahara."

She looked and saw a massive Labyrinth with a castle at the center. She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming. The king asked, "Do you still want to save them?"

"I guess if I want them back, then I really have no choice, do I?" Sahara muttered.

"Yes, it is your choice, I suppose... but I'd strongly advise you to turn back, Sahara…. Turn back before it's too late."

"It's so far…" Sahara whined, "How long do you think it will take me to get to the center of a place like that?"

"Hopefully not more than thirteen hours," replied the Goblin King as he spun the hands backwards on a clock that floated in the air. "If you can't get to them before then, then they'll become a part of my castle for ever and ever and _ever_…"

Sahara bit her lip. She didn't have any other choice. She didn't have any physical friends that she could move in with, and she was only fifteen, so she couldn't live on her own. She thought about living with her Uncle Toby and his wife and kids, but he wasn't her dad, and she wanted her dad back, if no one else.

She finally answered, "Can't you give me any clues?"

The Goblin King snickered at her as he began to vanish into thin air. His last words to her were, "…and you're nothing like your mother or twin sisters…_such a pity_…"

Sahara slumped and thought about turning around. She considered living with her grandparents, but nothing could ever replace her father and mother in the end.

Slowly, she pulled her shoulders upright and began to trudge down the stairs towards the outer walls of the Labyrinth.


	5. Trick or Treat?

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 5  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Trick or Treat?**

Sarah blinked as she stood inside The Castle Beyond the Goblin City. Jaime, Jareth – her husband, Jennifer, Julia, and Sahara were all missing. She was still holding a mug of coffee in her hands, while wondering if she had left the gas stove running in the kitchen by accident, and was now wildly hallucinating from the noxious fumes. A man with crazy hair was sitting lazily on a throne before her. She looked down.

Sarah King was standing in some sort of hole. She noticed a gigantic vulture spreading its wings on a wilting crown overtop of the throne and to her left were…

"Living cupie dolls?" Sarah muttered outloud.

The man before her tapped his boot with his riding crop, and as he finished his contemplating, he finally spun forward to face Sarah. He tilted his head to the side slightly and asked, "Did you miss me, Sarah?"

Sarah raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her coffee. She was used to the oddities of New York City and working around eccentric artists all day long, so seeing an oddly familiar, blond-haired, handsome man wearing the tightest gray spandex pants and holding a riding crop, didn't phase her at all. She figured that she had probably fallen asleep, or Jareth had accidentally mixed up their coffee cups and she had received his valium-laced, non-caffinated mixture.

_Oh, well_, Sarah thought._ Nothing of it._

After pausing for a few seconds, Sarah recalled that the _man_ had asked her a question, and being her quick-witted self, she answered, "Um, no. I see you… sitting there. I mean, how could anyone _actually_ miss you in that outfit?"

"Tra-la-la, the same old Sarah, as always," The man replied to her as she suddenly recognized the voice.

She nearly dropped her coffee as she snorted, "_Omigod_, Jareth is that you? Where did you get that crazy outfit and _that hair_… Did you buy that costume in Philly at the Halloween superstore on South Street, or what? The twins are going to flip-out when they see you in that thing. Although, I wouldn't wear that into any of the clubs downtown, or you might just be jumped by about a million horny women, not to mention several men will probably be hitting on you all night long as well… You can wear that to bed any time you want though…just don't forget to bring the crop."

"Yes," The Goblin King quipped and continued, "Exactly what are we talking about, then? Mmm? I'm afraid that you have me at a loss really. You see, this time around I have you and your entire family at the mercy of my thirteen-hour countdown. Your daughters did a splendid job of defeating my Labyrinth, after they wished their baby brother away three years ago. Of course, they used a team effort to beat me, so you still hold the record as the only single girl to ever get to the center of my Labyrinth before the deadline."

"Mmm, Okay," Sarah nodded and replied before taking another sip of her coffee. "Yeah, um, well… I totally have no idea what you're talking about either. I can't wait to tell my husband about this dream if I remember it in the morning."

After contemplating into her cup for a second, Sarah added, "I wonder what Sigmund Freud would say about this one? I guess birds are supposed to represent a repressed sexual desire, so I see vultures and chickens. Yes, it's true. I really haven't had good sex in the last three years, so that would make sense. And, well, you look like my husband if he was dressed like David Lee Roth, wearing Lita Ford's hairstyle, and donning Twisted Sister's makeup…. Well, never mind… What _were_ we talking about anyway?"

Jareth jumped up from his throne and contact juggled several magic glass crystals in his hands. Sarah blinked for a second, and finished by adding with raised eyebrows, "Nice…_uh_…balls? They're still not going to distract me from the ones that you're… _ahem_… compacting under those unbelievably tight pants."

"Why, Sarah Williams, I do believe that you're behaving rather like a tart," The Goblin King smirked.

"King…" Sarah corrected as she finished the last of her coffee and placed the mug upon the stone floor. "My name is Sarah King. I haven't been Sarah Williams for over nineteen years. I'm married. Remember?"

"Married?" The Goblin King asked as he moved closer to her. "Which month and day were you married nineteen years ago?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes. She hated when Jareth forgot their anniversary. "Let me guess, you've forgotten it again? Argh! Even in my dreams my husband forgets his own wedding anniversary! That's it! When I wake up, you and I are going to marriage counseling, Sweetheart!"

At that moment, Jennifer and Julia ran into the main throne room and embraced their mother. Julia cried, "Mommy! I'm sorry!"

Sarah raised her finger towards the Goblin King and asked, "Would you excuse me?"

Sarah asked, "Now, why are you sorry? Did you get kicked out of school?"

Jennifer made a face and the twin sisters exchanged glances. Jenny replied, "No, mom. We're sorry that we never told you about wishing Jaime away to the Goblin King years ago. We didn't mean it! Honestly! Please don't be angry!"

Sarah blinked several times and looked back at the Goblin King. "This is the best joke that you've played on me yet, Jareth. Wow, you even have the whole family in on it! I hope that you have enough battery time in whatever video camera you're using to record this on."

Julia yanked on her mother's sleeve and yelled, "No, mom! This isn't an act or some dream! This guy is really the Goblin King."

Jennifer nodded and concurred, "Yes! He's not daddy!"

"Uh-huh," Sarah rolled her eyes. She wasn't buying the _scared-little girl act_ that her eighteen-year old daughters were putting on. She continued, "Just remember to clean up the living room of all the puppets and bird poop when you're done, okay? I'm going to get Jaime and tuck him in for the night, then I'm getting a shower and going to bed."

The twins looked at each other again and made the crazy gestures around their temples to indicate that their mother's job stress had probably caused her to _fly-off the deep end_ at last. The Goblin King sat back down on his throne and began to cackle at the teenagers. They quickly backed into a corner of the throne room far away from him.


	6. The Littlest King

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 6  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Littlest King**

Jaime King was walking through the corridors of the Labyrinth when he jumped in fright. He turned towards the sudden noise that had startled him and it was promptly followed by a voice that sounded vaguely like his father's.

"And, where do you think you're going?" The voice asked.

Jaime walked towards the voice, but didn't answer. He held his hands out in front of him and moved cautiously forward until he could smell the leather of a boot. As he tiptoed a little closer to the source of the smell, he finally felt something smooth and cold with his fingertips. Jaime bent down until he recognized the slope of the shoe and then came to a pointy tip at the end. He motioned his head upwards and asked, "Who are you?"

"I could be your father, boy," the voice answered.

"No…. no, you're not my daddy, Mister," Jaime replied.

The boot shifted position, and Jaime had to back away to be sure he didn't lose his balance. Then, the masculine voice asked amusedly, "You're mother, Sarah, and sister, Sahara think I'm your 'daddy', so why wouldn't you think so too, child?"

"Because, you have a mean voice and my daddy doesn't," Jaime responded.

"Mmm, such a small child and you have already drawn those conclusions. Have you actually taken a good look at me, little one?" The voice asked.

"I can't, Mister," Jaime said candidly.

"Oh? You only need to look in the correct direction to see me," The man said and then snapped his gloved fingers. "I'm over here, boy! Why do you keep looking past my shoulders?"

"I'm not looking at anything. I can't see… I'm blind," Jaime finished with his arms crossed angrily.

"Ah. Are you certain?" The man asked.

Jaime nodded and the man continued, "It amazes me that you have made it so far from my castle in such a short time with such a horrific handicap. You should be helpless without any sight, don't you think? Are you sure that you're really blind, or are _we_ just pretending?"

Jaime frowned, "People who can't see aren't helpless! I can find things faster than my mommy and sisters can, also I can do certain things better-_er_ too."

"Like, what exactly?"

Jaime placed his tiny hands on his hips and raised his chin defiantly, "Well, you just breathed seven times in the last minute. The wind is blowing against the left side of my face, which means that there is an opening in the wall to the left of me. There are about eight crows in a tree nearby, because I can hear them crowing and one of the birdies are cleaning its feathers, 'cause I can hear its beak shuffling inside its wings. It's still early in the morning here, because there is some wetness on the plants and walls, but the ground is dry. Five little people are standing around you right now, because I can hear their breathing too, and their breaths are close to the ground, so I know they are small like me."

"Well, those are goblins, not people, actually…. How old are you, boy?" the voice asked.

"This many," Jaime answered and held up three fingers.

"You speak amazingly at such a tender age. Why, you're only a baby," The voice marveled.

"I'm NOT a baby! And my daddy reads to me all the time and talks to me too. I learned to talk _gooder_ than my sisters did at my age, because my daddy tells me that since I can't see, I have better _other_ senses," Jaime nodded proudly.

"'Gooder'?" The voice asked mockingly. "Well, most of your vocabulary is farther advanced anyway…"

Jaime tilted his head and whispered, "You're the Goblin King, aren't you?"

"And what if I was, boy?" The man asked.

"Are you going to turn me into a goblin?" Jaime asked. "'Cause my sister said the magic words…are you going to do that to me, Mister Goblin King?"

"If your sister, Sahara, can't solve my Labyrinth in less than thirteen hours, then I believe that I will," The Goblin King replied. "Although, I've never had to cater to a blind goblin before… this should be interesting."

"You don't think that my sister will win, do you?" Jaime asked.

The Goblin King bent down towards the toddler and began to observe the boy's mismatched eyes. Then, he waved his hands in front of Jaime's face to see if the boy was lying about his vision. Jaime furrowed his eyebrows and yelled, "Stop that! I hate when people do that!"

"So! You can see!" The Goblin King exclaimed.

Jaime shook his head over-emphatically and shouted, "No! But I can feel the breeze from your hands when you do that, and plus you're wearing funny smelling gloves on them too 'cause they smell the same as your boots!"

"Aww," The Goblin King purred. "Such a sad life for you…. You've never even seen a full moon or the rising of the sun. And to have missed the sight of your mother's unbelievably radiant eyes…. Now, that _is _such a pity."

"I've seen the moon and sun before," Jaime replied smugly.

The Goblin King blinked and muttered, "How could you have ever _seen_ anything if you can't _see_ at all?"

"I see everything in my dreams, Mister Goblin King," Jaime whispered. "I know that you look like my daddy a little bit, 'cause I've seen you sitting on your big chair in that castle in the middle of your gigantic Labyrinth with an orange sun shining overhead. You have fluffy hair. Can…. Can I…?"

"Can you, _what_, child?" The Goblin King asked.

"Can I feel it please?" Jaime bit his lip and remembered that his mother and father both told him to **never** talk to strangers, let alone allowing them to come too close. The toddler couldn't resist the Goblin King for some reason, and was more intrigued and infatuated with him, rather than frightened.

Jaime felt the leather-gloved hands wrap around him and lift him into the air. He was promptly propped against the chest of the Goblin King as the little boy reached out his hands. The king guided them over to his hair and allowed the boy to run his fingers through it. Jaime giggled as he whispered, "…just like daddy's…."

Jaime's curiosity had gotten the better of him and he allowed his hands to run past the hair and to the face. It was soft and smooth, with high cheekbones and…

Jaime gasped, "You're nose is the same as my daddy's too!"

The Goblin King removed the child's hands from his face and placed them on something hard, smooth, and round. Jaime tilted his head, "Is a ball? It feels like it's made of glass."

"Neither, young child," The Goblin King replied. "It's a magic crystal and within it is a dream. I can grant you one wish, if you should like. You can have anything that you want, you only need to say the magic words."

Jaime froze and took a deep breath in. The voice of his parents screamed out in his head telling him never to take anything from strangers. The Goblin King, despite his dreams, was a stranger by every description. Jaime had only physically met him less than five minutes ago, and the king wasn't exactly very nice to him from the start. The toddler worked things out in his mind and the Goblin King prodded, "Well? What do you wish for? …_as if I didn't already know_…."

Jaime pursed his lips nervously and finally stammered, "My mommy says, 'If wishes were horses, we'd all take a ride'."

The Goblin King's tone changed immediately, he spat, "When someone offers you a free wish, boy, it's best not to insult the granter! Now, what did you wish for?"

Jaime narrowed his eyes and kicked the arm of the Goblin King, which caused him to be dropped. Jaime fell hard and skinned his knee, but his adrenaline was racing and he barely felt it at the moment. He shouted before racing forward towards the wind, "Leave me alone! You're a stranger! I just want my daddy and mommy and sisters! My daddy said that nothing is ever free and you're just trying to trick me!"

Jaime wasn't sure if the Goblin King or his entourage of goblins were following him, but he was trying to concentrate on running as far and fast as his tiny legs could carry him. Despite his hobbling, he was certainly making tracks. However, a few seconds later, the ground dropped out from under him and he fell into an area with slimy, groping hands that were holding him.

He could hear voices all around him as he shouted, "Mommy! Daddy! Help me!"

New voices answered him from all directions, "What are you talking about? We are helping! We're helping hands…"

Jaime was petrified, because there must have been a dozen cold, slippery, gigantic hands holding his limbs and body and he couldn't find the faces that commonly paired with arms and hands. They were holding him too tightly and he cried, "You're hurting me! Please let go!"

"Are you sure?" Another burly voice asked.

Jaime nodded and said, "Yes, please!"

"He said, 'let go'!" Still another voice said regretfully and then there was laughter as Jaime felt all of the hands release him at once and he began to sprial downward.

He screamed loudly, until he once again crashed down unto the ground. He hurt his ankle this time and began to cry. After a few minutes of realizing that nobody heard his cries anyway, he began to explore the area that he had been dropped into. Sadly to his dismay, as he felt his way around, there was no entrance or exit. It was just a small area without any doors or windows. He sat back down on the ground and tucked his knees under his chin and started to weep again.


	7. Dark Corridors

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 7  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 7: Dark Corridors**

Sahara had taken forever to find the entrance of the Labyrinth, and then she had run in a straight line for almost ten minutes before a strange, little blue worm advised her to use the hidden openings in the walls. At the advice of the worm, she turned to the right instead of the left.

As she walked forward, she began to ponder the ramifications of her parent's anger towards her after what she had said and done. Sahara wasn't really certain that she wanted to find them, because she was absolutely sure that it would mean being grounded forever. Her thick, black eyeliner was getting into her eyes due to the sweat pouring down her face from her running. Suddenly, she thought that she heard someone behind her.

She spun around quickly, screamed, and then fell backwards.

"Sahara?" Jareth King blinked. "Oh, Sahara, is that really you?"

Sahara began to cry, "Daddy? Is that really you?"

Jareth smiled and held out his hand to help his daughter back up to her feet. "Yes, Darling…Who else would I be?"

"I thought…." Sahara began.

"Yes?" Jareth asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Nothing, never mind," Sahara finished.

Jareth hugged his youngest daughter close to him and she began to cry, "Oh, Daddy, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it."

"Mean what?" Jareth asked.

"I wished us away to this awful place and there's this 'guy' that said I had thirteen hours to finish it, or else he'll keep you and mom, and Jaime and my sisters trapped her forever," Sahara moaned.

Before either of them could say another word, they heard a child crying in the distance. Jareth stiffened up and whispered, "Jaime… That sound's like Jaime. Come, Sahara! We need to find him! He's utterly petrified."

Sahara nodded and grasped her father's hand. Suddenly, one of her necklaces fell off of her neck. It was her new one that she had bought at the mall a week ago. The chain was silver with a small, pewter pendant of a dragon's claw holding a clear crystal ball. She knelt down to pick it up and let go of Jareth's hand. After she pushed a few dried leaves aside on the ground, she found it and gazed at it for a second. The necklace had merely undid its clamp and only needed to be clipped around her neck again. She thought that it was weird that this could have happened, as she shook her head wondering if the fastener was starting to wear out already. Sahara looked up and realized that her father had turned in another direction and she could no longer see him.

Her eyes shifted nervously as she asked, "Daddy?"

Sahara stood up and asked again, "Daddy!?"

When there was still no response, she shouted, "DADDY?!?"

Sahara began to race forward and could feel the tears well up within her eyes again. She turned to the left, then to the right, and then ran straight ahead until she came upon a four-way intersection of corridors. Each of them looked the same, and she wasn't sure that she had even turned the same direction that her father had taken to begin with. As she spun backwards to retrace her steps, she ran into the Goblin King.

He was leaning with his arms crossed against the entrance wall of the previous corridor. He snickered at Sahara and began to walk towards her in a glowering manner. Sahara backed up until she was cornered again, and the king moved within inches of her and blocked her escape with his arms pinned to the walls on each side of her.

She was completely uncomfortable with a man that looked almost exactly like her father being so close to her face. Sahara swallowed nervously and found that she was too afraid to even blink at the Goblin King. He continued to sneer at her and twisted his mouth upwards as he said, "I can't believe that you're still crying for your 'daddy'. Didn't you run away from him some time ago, and then he had to find you and bring you back home again?"

"How…How did you know about that?" Sahara stuttered.

"Tut-tut! I understand you, even if your parent's don't, Sahara," The Goblin King whispered softly into her ear. "I know what a girl your age wants and needs. They think you're a baby, and treat you like a child, but I can give you exactly what your heart desires."

Sahara's skin was crawling as she began to shake. She found that she was unable to say anything back to him and wished that he would just go away. The teenager closed her eyes and began to sink farther down unto the wall. When she opened them again, he had not left, and was laughing at her.

"Mmm," He began in a musical hum. "I've noticed that you took the time to pick up the pendant of the owl claw holding the magic crystal. It was more important than staying close to your 'daddy', wasn't it? See? You don't need him anymore…"

"It's a dragon's claw," The girl corrected as she zipped up her hoodie until the neckline reached her chin. "…and I _do_ need my dad…"

The Goblin King ignored her words completely and finished, "Did you know that this is a symbol of my kingdom? If you wear it, then it means that you belong to me."

Sahara gasped and looked down at her now zipped-up, black, hooded sweatshirt. Her eyes were wide and she was about to push the king away to make a run for it, but as she glanced up again, he was gone.

Sahara never did locate her father again, but started running frantically throughout the Labyrinth in a unmethodical manner. It wasn't until an hour later, when she got a cramp in her side, that she actually stopped to see where she was.


	8. DaddyDo?

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 8  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 8: Daddy-Do?**

Jareth King kept following the voice of his missing son, until he looked back and realized that Sahara wasn't behind him any longer. Immediately, he began to turn around as he called, "Sahara?"

_No response._

He tried again, "Sahara?"

He was about to double-back when the crying child became louder. He furrowed his eyebrows and shoved his hands into his pockets. Sometimes being a parent was downright maniacal. Jareth shook his head and made the decision to go towards the baby instead.

_Jaime is younger, after all_, he thought. Outloud he muttered, "Foolish, headstrong girl is going to drive me into a multiple personality disorder…"

Another voice from around the corner said, "Quite often, you'll find that we are neither coming nor going…"

Jareth spun about to find the source of the voice and saw a bizarre old man, or something like an old man, sitting on a concrete chair of some sort, with a strangely shaped bird-hat upon his head. Jareth asked, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"

"Ach! The man _deeedn't_ even _leeesten_ to what you said," The bird-hat atop the old man's head uttered angrily with a strong Hispanic accent.

Jareth blinked and replied, "That's it. I've gone completely mad."

The bird-hat grumbled, "Hey, crazy man! You need to _leeesten_ to what _theees_ geezer is telling you! Not sure if it will help, but it couldn't hurt, huh?"

Jareth raised his eyebrows and shrugged, as he searched his pockets to see if his medication was still there. When he was assured that it was, the old man began to speak again, "I said, young man,…that sometimes, we are neither coming nor going…but find that we haven't moved at all."

"Alright then, thank you…" Jareth began with a hum and rubbed his hands together as he began to back away slowly. "That made _absolutely_ no sense, but thank you anyway…"

The old man fell asleep as Jareth was sneaking away, but the bird-hat shouted, "Hey! Donate a contribution to the box please!"

Jareth grappled the prescription bottle out of his pocket and unscrewed the safety cap. He pulled out a tiny yellow pill and dropped it into the box. The bird-hat thanked him as he walked away again, and Jareth replied softly, "No problem. I think that it will probably help you more than its been helping me anyway. I actually need a hospital at this point."

He turned the corner and heard Jaime crying again. He began to run towards his son's sobs until he came upon….

_A fox puppet dressed like Don Quixote while riding on a white, bridled, sheepdog?_ Jareth's entire face contorted and he smacked himself on the cheek a couple of times while muttering, "It's not real. It's not real. This is just a dream. You're having another one of those nightmares…."

"Why, Sire!" The fox exclaimed, "Thou art looking well today, your Majesty! 'Tis good to see you out and about at last! What shall I do for you today, my Good King?"

Jareth King didn't answer. He had his hands covering his mouth as he took slow deep breaths out of his nose. He kept nodding his head and was emotionally torn between laughing and crying at this point. Finally, after several more deep breaths, Jareth remarked, "I knew that I should have insisted that Sarah and I take that Disney cruise last year instead of celebrating Christmas in Jersey."

"Ah! The fairest lady Sarah!" The fox waved his staff and continued, "Yon lady, doth have I missed! Hark! May I ask, Good King, how might she be?"

"Better than me, I hope," Jareth mumbled.

"Hark!" The fox shouted again. "Dost thou hear a child crying in the darkness, Ambrosious?"

The sheepdog barked and Jareth blinked in disbelief. "That's my son, Jaime!" He shouted out of parental automation.

"'Tis the King's son? I didn't know, Sire, forgive me!" The fox apologized. "We shall find him at once, right Ambrosious? _Tallyho_!"

At those words, the sheepdog sprung forward and ran towards the crying child, while Jareth followed the animal duo with serious doubts about how he was ever going to return from this delusion.

When they reached a large ceramic planter on a pedestal, Jareth peered down into it. Jaime's cries were definitely coming from within. He thought that he could see a ladder inside, which lead downwards and he was about to use it, when he heard another voice from behind him.

"Jareth?!"

He looked around until he saw a rather large-headed tiny…._person?_

The fox removed his feathered hat and took a bow, "Ah! My dear brother, Hoggle! How art thou this fine day?"

"Aww, Sir Diddymus, why are ya' helpin' _him_?" Hoggle asked angrily without answering the fox.

Sir Diddymus turned to Hoggle and said, "But 'tis our king, my Brother. Do we not _now_ respect him? I have sworn an oath, my Brother!"

"Now, what oath did ya' swear? _…can't wait to hear this one…_" Hoggle rolled his eyes.

"I have sworn my allegiance to those of the royal blood line, of course!" Sir Diddymus placed his hat proudly back unto his head. "Are we not the loyal subjects and protectors of this land, my Brother?"

Jareth cleared his throat and said, "So, sorry, but…_um_… my son is stuck in this hole, and I can't see how far it is to get down there… Does anyone have a flashlight? _Jaime, hold on, … Daddy's coming_!"

"I ain't believin' nuttin' ya say, Jareth! You're a despicable rat!" The dwarf furrowed his hairy, white eyebrows.

"Right," Jareth raised his eyebrows in doubt. "And should I be really concerned with a schizophrenic delusion telling me that it hates my guts? Look you're either going to help me or not. All I know is that my son is down there, and you can _all_ sit up here and imaginarily chat amongst yourselves while I rescue him, or you can _all_ imaginarily help me get him out of there."

Hoggle shrugged and replied, "I guess I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't either way."

Jareth grinned and tapped the dwarf on the arm while saying jovially, "That's the spirit! Now, does my paranoid delusion-elf happen to have a flashlight on him anywhere?"

Hoggle looked at Sir Diddymus and the fox just shrugged back. Hoggle finally pointed and said, "Ya know, Jareth… you'll probably bog me for this, but ya' ain't been right lately. Not since that problem with Sarah."

Jareth had his head down in the ceramic planter again, as he answered, "Look! I'm going to therapy twice a week, and I've had my medications adjusted thirteen times in the last three years. What more do you want from me? This is just another mental slip, and I promise that I'll tell Sarah when I come out of it in the morning….Now, be a good chap and hand me a light-source or something, so I can fish my son out of the well that he's fallen into…"

Hoggle blinked, "Jareth… you put him in there."

Jareth lifted his head out of the planter with his eyes wide in disbelief, "I would never harm my own child. I don't care how '_tra-la-la'_ I am at this time… I would never do such a cruel thing to my darling Jaime!"

The dwarf crossed his arms, "I told ya' you ain't been right lately…I watched ya' do it from behind _this_ here shrub. He was runnin' away from ya' after he kicked ya' in the arm, and then, _'woosh!'_, ya' dropped the ground out from under the little tyke and sent him fallin' into the oubliette."

"That's impossible," Jareth stammered as he rolled up one of his sleeves. "See? My arm is uninjured. If I had done that, then wouldn't I have a bruise or mark? Jaime is quite a kicker after all…"

Hoggle pointed, "It wasn't that arm, yer' Majesty. It was the other one."

Jareth mused and rolled up his other sleeve while he grumbled, "This is impossible. I can't believe that I have to prove to my own _delusionary_ friends, that I didn't throw my son down a……"

Jareth became speechless as he uncovered a rather new purple and blue bruise after he rolled up the sleeve on his upper forearm. He inhaled deeply and everyone became quiet, save but Jaime crying in the oubliette.


	9. Seriously Disturbed

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 9  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked: **__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 9: Seriously Disturbed**

Sarah kept looking around and couldn't find Jaime anywhere. In fact, she didn't even recognize her house layout. She returned to the throne-room area and sat down in the Goblin King's throne. The goblins gasped, knowing full well that only the king himself was allowed to sit in _that_ chair.

Jennifer leapt forward and shouted, "Mom!"

But before she could finish her warning, the Goblin King came sweeping back in miserably. He snapped his fingers at the twin girls and pointed to the door. "Leave!" He shouted sternly.

Julia and Jennifer didn't waste any time in running from the room. The Goblin King marched swiftly to his throne and placed his hands on his hips, while asking rhetorically, "Are we enjoying ourselves, Sarah?"

Sarah raised her eyebrows and replied, "If you mean, am I 'enjoying' my drug trip into la-la land, thanks to you mixing up our coffee's again, then, 'No.'"

He began to tap his foot and pointed to his arm, "Do you know what the little brat did to me?"

"Look, Jareth," Sarah began. "I'll call Doctor Strauss first thing tomorrow morning, and have Sahara admitted to the hospital for observation, okay? Don't flip out over it. There's always one kid that has problems in a large family. She's just going through an extreme version of the '_fugly' _years…we all have them… I think. I can't remember mine, but Karen said I was horrible at Sahara's age too..._although I wasn't quite as horrible..."_

"I'm not talking about the girl, Sarah," The Goblin King muttered. "I'm talking about the boy."

"Since when have we been having problems with Jaime?" Sarah blinked. "You said he was an angel, you said he was behaving well, you said…"

"He kicked me!" The Goblin King interrupted.

"Maybe your costume freaked him out, Honey," Sarah rubbed her eyes. "Remember, even though he's more verbal than most children his age, he's still just a baby… He's three years old, not ten… Of course, he couldn't see you in the costume, but maybe…. Oh, never mind. We'll talk about this in the morning."

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows in amusement as Sarah stood up and pinched him on the butt as she finished, "Come on, Van Halen, lead your trippy wife up to bed, before I start running naked through the halls. And next time, try not to mix up our coffees again… I have work in the morning, and my boss will be pissed if I call out overmedicated again."

The Goblin King continued to stare, until Sarah finally broke the silence and asked, "Jareth? Are you okay? You're staring at me strangely."

_No comment._

Sarah sighed, "Okay, go into the kitchen and take your meds…. You're zoning out on me again. I don't want you keeping me awake all night long with the sleepwalking and singing and dancing. It wouldn't be so bad if it were sex, but its not and it is what it is…"

The Goblin King finally said, "Oh no, Sarah. You're never returning to work again. There's no escape from me this time."

Sarah shook her head and looked away, "That's it. Where's the phone? I'm calling your shrink."

"You can't call anyone, Sarah… No one will help you now," The Goblin King stepped closer, which forced Sarah backwards back into his throne.

"Jareth, you're freaking me out now. Okay? So, if this is a game, I want you to stop it, because it isn't funny," Sarah placed her arm on his, and honestly considered asking her brother Toby to take her kids first thing in the morning, until she could get her husband stabilized.

"But I adore games, Sarah," The Goblin King leaned closer. "And this time you won't win, because my rules have changed."

Sarah began to get frightened. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she couldn't see any recognition in his eyes. She pleaded, "Jareth… Honey? Don't. Please! This isn't you. I love you!"

"Love?" The Goblin King sneered. "I cast _that_ emotion far from me long ago, along with compassion, joy, and half of my heart that you cut out, after you broke it into two!"

Sarah panicked and slithered out of the throne and dodged around the Goblin King, until she fled out the door. She had moved too quickly for him to catch her. Sarah King bounded out through the Labyrinth at extreme speeds, until she ran into a dead end. She shook everywhere and began to sob in the corner, until she thought that she heard Sahara's voice nearby.

It was coming from the other side of the wall. Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and whispered, "Sahara? Is that you?"

"Mommy?" came a response from the other side.

Sarah smiled sadly between her tears and asked, "Are you okay, honey? You sound upset…"

"Mommy, there's this guy running around here that looks just like daddy wearing a bad wig…" Sahara's voice replied through deep breaths. "I accidentally made a wish… I don't hate you, Mommy. I'm sorry!"

Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and replied, "I'm not angry at you, Sahara. Do you know where your brother and sisters are? We have to find them and go to Uncle Toby's house tonight."

"No," Sahara sobbed. "I've only seen daddy, and he ran off to find Jaime. Jaime was crying, but neither of us could find him."

Sarah bit her lip upon hearing the news of Jaime's upset, and then said slowly, "Honey, your father's very sick right now, and…"

Sarah stopped. She didn't know how to confront her daughter with this topic.

Sahara interrupted, "No, Mom, that wild-haired, blonde guy who looks like Daddy in a nasty, punk wig, isn't really Daddy. He's the Goblin King. I just spoke to Daddy an hour ago and he was fine."

Sarah took a deep breath in and continued, "When people are sick…_you know_… sometimes the brain gets sick, and people think that they are somebody else. It isn't their fault. ...and they even dress like that …_um_… other person that they think they are, and they just don't realize....that what they think they're seeing ...isn't really there."

"Mom!" Sahara shouted. "That guy isn't Daddy! I'm sure! We're really in a Labyrinth right now, and you're not having a mental breakdown or something, because then we all would be having the same delusion. That wouldn't be possible, right?"

Sarah knelt down to the ground and drew her knees up to her chin and said between intermittent tears, "I don't know…anymore, Sahara."

Sahara could hear the change in her mother's voice and cried frantically, "Mom? Did the Goblin King hurt you? What did he do to you?"

Sarah placed her head in her arms and began to weep. She wasn't sure how she was going to get her children out of this mess. Still assuming that she had accidentally been drugged with Jareth's psychiatric medications, Sarah felt that there was no way that she could possible reach them until the effects wore off. She thought about Jareth's anger at Jaime and wondered how many years of counseling it would take for her children to work through his sudden psychotic break.

Then, Sarah heard Sahara cry out from the other side of the wall, "Daddy! I'm over here! _Mom_! It's Daddy! He's here!"

Sarah stood up and placed her hands against the wall. She looked up and wondered if it was really a wall. She tapped at it, and it felt quite solid. Sahara's calls were answered when Sarah heard Jareth on the other side. Jareth's voice rang out in relief, "Oh, thank god! Sahara! It took me nearly two hours to get your brother out of that pit that he had been thrown into."

Sarah covered her mouth in shock and backed away from the wall. Sarah could hear Jaime's little voice saying, "I kicked the Goblin King and he let me go… Then, I ran and fell into a hole with slimy hands that grabbed me everywhere."

Sarah screamed and began to shake in fury. The shock of Jaime's words caused her to feel like she had been punched in the gut. Sahara cried out, "Mom? _Mommy_?! Are you okay?"

Jareth could be heard asking Sahara, "Is that your mother on the other side?"

Then he cried out, "Sarah? Is that you, Darling?"

Something inside Sarah snapped and she banged the wall, "Get your goddamned hands off of my children, _Jareth_!"

"Sarah?" Jareth asked in a startled voice. "Are you okay?"

"NO! I'm not okay! You've purposely drugged me up, so you could do _ABUSE_ our children! I want you out of my house! I want you out, NOW!" Sarah screamed as she continued to slam her hands against the stonewalls of the Labyrinth until they bled.

"Sarah, I would never do such a thing," Jareth cried out from the other side. "My god, what kind of a monster do you think I am?"

Sarah replied back with a shout, "You're not yourself, Jareth! Don't think that just because I work long hours everyday of the week, that your strange behavior escapes my notice! You need help! What freaks me out the most is, I don't know how long this personality shift had been happening to you?!?"

"Sarah, it's just a slip," Jareth replied in a wavering voice, "I swear I was going to call the doctor first thing tomorrow morning and have my medication adjusted again."

"You can't be regulated," Sarah cried as she leaned against the wall completely distraught. "You need constant supervision. You need serious psychiatric intensive care… Just look at Sahara…she cuts herself. Next, it will be Jaime…_Oh, my god, oh my god…_"

Sarah heard a sound from behind her and she turned her head slowly. Her eyes met with a familiar, wild-haired, blonde man, wearing a long black cloak. She pinned herself against the wall and stuttered through thick tears, "J-Jareth?"

The Goblin King smirked at her and held up a magic crystal as he whispered, "It's all just an illusion anyway, Darling."

Sarah shrieked as she looked within the glass ball and then everything became suddenly silent.

From the other side of the wall Sahara gasped, "Mommy?"

Jareth could be heard again as little Jaime began to cry, "Sarah? Darling? Is everything alright? Sarah?! Answer me… _Sarah_!"


	10. Beauty and the Beast

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 10  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 10: Beauty and the Beast**

Jareth King leaned against the wall where he had last heard his wife's voice. He had his arms around Sahara and Jaime, while he contemplated the final words that she had screamed at him just before everything fell silent. He glanced at his bruised arm again and then looked at Jaime's skinned knee.

He thudded his head against the wall of the Labyrinth lightly over and over. Sahara was literally a basketcase, and Jaime had fallen asleep while crying. He didn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore.

_Was Sarah right? Did he actually become another person that he wasn't aware of? Had he become a monster deep within his psyche? _

He thought back to the past when he had spent most of his days in the rehab center, where he had met Sarah for the first time. The two of them had been recovering from devastating accidents that sent them into intensive hospitalization and a coma for over a year. Both Sarah and Jareth had to relearn how to walk, read, and write. They spent a lot of time together and their attraction had been immediate from the first day that they had first looked at one another.

While nobody could determine what incident had caused Jareth King's coma, Sarah's was easier to explain because there had been several witnesses and a newspaper article that attested to the event.

Her hospitalization had resulted from a freak accident on the freeway, where she was traveling in her car behind a produce company's tractor-trailer dump truck, which accidentally opened and discarded nearly twenty-six thousand pounds of peaches onto the front of her car. It instantly killed her fiancé and flung her upcoming maid of honor and her fiancé's best man, who would have been at her wedding, out of the side windows of her car. Sarah was the only survivor in the end, and even her life had hung on by a thread. It was a miracle that she lived at all from the extensive damage that her brain had suffered. She had to be hooked up to full life support for months. However, as if by some magical intervention, Sarah awoke exactly a year and a month later with a full recovery.

Jareth had apparently awoken the same hour in the hospital bed next to her. The memory itself was vague, because he had been so debilitated at that point. However, he did recall her amazing green eyes.

They had spent a lot of time together, and spoke quite often, that is, once Sarah had relearned how to speak. He had been more fortunate, because he was able to remember his name, how to talk, and even had an accent to identify a point of origin. Jareth had searched the Mother Country to see if he had missing relatives anywhere who would claim him, but sadly enough, nobody ever came forward looking for a blond-haired, mismatched-eyed man of about thirty-to-forty years of age.

It didn't matter anyway, because by that point, he and Sarah had become very close to one another. Less than a year later, they ran away to a chapel in Las Vegas and eloped… this was mostly due to the fact that Karen protested about everything Sarah did, and he found it amazing that his future wife could even breathe without Karen bitching about it at some point.

The twins arrived nearly a year later, while Sarah was finishing her master's degree at NYU. She had to take an incomplete in three of her classes, but was allowed to walk with her graduating class as long as she agreed to complete them during the summer semester.

Things had been very smooth for the two of them, until Sahara was born, and then Jareth began to suffer severe headaches, followed by visual disturbances, and finally the dreams had started…

He had been to over three-dozen neurologists and psychiatrists about the problem, but all they kept offering him were anti-psychotropic drugs and anti-convulsant medications and tranquilizer pills. Most of the data had been inconclusive and even his genetic tests hadn't revealed anything usual. In fact, the clinic, where he had his blood tests done, asked if he would be interested in a human cloning experiment because he was in such perfect shape with such flawless genetics. He turned them down, of course…

Now, it was nineteen years later, and his wife and twin daughters were missing, Jaime had been injured, Sahara was terribly traumatized, and he was speaking to ugly-elves, talking foxes, and bird-hats within an oversized maze of walls.

As if things couldn't have gotten worse for Jareth, at that moment, a huge walking, brown shag carpet with horns scuffled towards him and started talking in child's speak.

"Ludo, Sawah Friend," The big fuzzy creature moaned.

Jareth just looked down and ignored it. He was hoping that the apparition would go away and leave him alone if he pretended that he didn't see it. However, it didn't and flopped unto the ground next to him with a gigantic thud. It placed its arms on Jareth's head as he blinked in agitation. He mumbled to himself, "Boy, I do hope this episode ends really, _really_ soon…."

"Bad King have Sawah," the brown hunk of fur continued.

Sahara looked up and blinked. She tapped her father on the shoulder and said, "Daddy, there's a big fuzzy bull talking to you."

"No," Jareth turned his head. "No, there's nothing there. It's just a delusion. Yup! Daddy's good, Darling. Don't worry!"

Ludo continued to pat Jareth on the head and pleaded, "Save Sawah, Friend."

Sahara started to shake her father, and said, "Daddy! I think he wants us to save Mommy. I think that fluffy thing knows where Mommy is."

Ludo nodded, "Ludo Know!"

Jareth rubbed his face and sniffed, but pretended that he couldn't hear the creature.

"Daddy, please!"

"Sahara, I'm not feeling very well right now." Jareth sighed. "Your mother was right. I need to check permanently into a hospital for constant attention."

Ludo pawed at Jareth's shirt and begged, "Good King Save Sawah!"

"Daddy…" Sahara shook her head. "Daddy, that fluffy thing thinks that you are a good king. I think that only you can save Mommy! Please! I can't do it alone. I need you!"

"Ludo Like Good King," Ludo agreed with a dough-eyed nod towards Jareth.

"Oh, Bloody Hell!" Jareth exclaimed, while throwing his hands up in the air. "Fine! Where's Sarah?"

"Bad King Stole Sawah In Dweam," Ludo lowered his head. "Dance Magic Dance."

Jareth shook his head, "What the hell does that mean?"

Jaime had awoken and translated, "The Goblin King is dancing with Mommy in a dream, Daddy."

Jareth stood up and adjusted Jaime within his arms, and then pulled Sahara close to him. He mumbled, "Sarah's going to lock me away in a padded-cell after this fiasco and throw away the key forever…."

He walked towards Ludo and demanded, "Alright, take me to Sarah, then!"


	11. More Junk to Sift Through

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 11  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is INCREDIBLY dark, and therefore is marked: **__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 11: More Junk to Sift Through**

Ludo led Jareth into an underground passageway as he carried his two youngest children close to him. He still couldn't believe that he was listening to, what he considered to be, a delusion. At this point, however, he figured his imaginary 'friends' weren't causing he or his children any harm. Of course, he refused to let anything inside this crazy place, besides himself, handle his children in anyway.

The corridor became deeper and darker by the second, until everyone emerged into some sort of broken child's room. Jareth recognized it immediately as Sarah's childhood bedroom. It looked nearly identical to the setup from her family pictures, except the walls had been apparently torn down and heaps of random garbage had collapsed inward from the outside.

Jareth asked Ludo, "Where are we exactly?"

Ludo turned and answered, "Find Sawah Here Long Ago."

Sahara picked up a white-gowned princess figurine that sat atop an elaborate music box. It began to play a melody. Jareth knocked the item from her hand and muttered, "Don't touch that, Darling… This place is filthy and you could catch a disease."

Then, he turned to Ludo and asked, "So, you did mention something about Sarah being here…_um_… I hope that I didn't really hear the part about 'long ago', because now is really **not** the time for a tour."

Ludo nodded slowly and pointed upwards, "Sawah Fell From Bubble."

Jareth looked upwards into an empty sky of stars and shook his head. Suddenly, he heard a raggedy voice of an elderly woman, however as he looked he saw some sort of….

…_Homeless old bag lady…or gremlin…or something?_ Jareth finished the thought in his head.

He blinked for a second as the small, old creature wearing refuse on its back, waddled up towards him. Jareth King backed away as the junk hag asked, "I see that yer' lookin' fer' somethin'! Well, why don't'cha try this?"

She handed him a small picture of Sarah standing in a yard with her arms around a white sheepdog resembling the one that Sir Diddymus was riding. Sarah looked to be about ten or eleven years old, but he recognized her eyes right away.

He held the picture up to the light and said, "It's fascinating how much you and your sisters look like your mother, Sahara."

Before his daughter could respond to him, the hag tried to hand him several other items, but he replied, "No! No, I don't wear lipstick. Um, no, please… thank you. Yes, I can see that it's a stuffed bear. No. I don't need it. Don't put that crown on my head. Oh…my…."

Jaime giggled and Sahara smirked as the junk hag placed a cheap looking plastic princess crown on their father's head. He just shook his head and muttered, "Next we'll be having a tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare…"

After a few more seconds of chaos and Ludo's constant moaning for him to look up, Jareth finally snapped, "Look! I need to find my wife and daughters, _now_! Unless they are buried in this pile of junk somewhere, then I suggest we move on and keep looking! Yes, my furry fellow, I've looked four times, and there's nothing there! You creatures are driving me _INSANE_!"

Jaime jumped and Sahara's eyes opened wide. Neither had ever heard their father raise his voice in anger before. Jareth hadn't finished either… He continued, "_HEY_! All I want to do is find Sarah, Jennifer, and Julia and escape from this forsaken place with my entire family, and then return home! _RIGHT NOW_!

At that second, everything became quiet and he was sitting on his couch with Jaime in his lap and Sahara leaning on his shoulder. Sarah King fell to the ground with a thud right before him and his twin daughters huddled together in terror over in the corner of the living room. The entire house was still completely dark and he could hear Sarah sobbing with her face down on the carpet.

Sahara jumped off his shoulder immediately and raced toward her mother's side. "Mom!" She cried in fright.

Sarah looked up and hugged her daughter in relief, "Omigod, Sahara?"

"Mommy, we're back!" Sahara laughed and nodded.

Sarah didn't seem as relieved as she looked up and saw Jareth with Jaime in his arms. He moved towards her and she held out her hands, "STOP!"

He stopped.

"Give me Jaime…Now, Jareth!" Sarah stammered with tears streaming down her face.

Sahara pawed her mother and said, "But, Mom…"

Sarah grabbed her daughter's wrist tightly and said sternly, "Go to the car, Sahara… Just go, _NOW_!"

Jareth started, "Sarah, I'm sorry…I…"

Sarah interrupted, "_Don't_! Just, **don't**…say _anything_! Jennifer, Julia, go to the car, now! Jareth, give me Jaime, here…_hurry_…."

He obediently handed his son over to his wife, as the little boy shook at the sound of his mother's petrified voice. Jaime started to cry, which made the moment even more heart retching than it already had been.

Sarah kept her hand held out as a warning for him not to follow and she grabbed her keys from the hook near the front door as she opened it. Her eyes were wide, and he could clearly distinguish the look of mortification on her face as she refused to take her eyes off of him for a second. She limped backwards as Jareth looked down to find out why…

"Sarah, why are your feet bleeding?" He asked.

"You need serious help, Jareth," Sarah winced and kept prodding her children out the door behind her. "I'm-I'm going to Toby's house…. I want you to leave and please…_please_ don't ever come back!"

She hobbled towards the car in the driveway, put Jaime into his carseat, and then she closed the door as the other three children took their seats within. Sarah wiped her face with her hands as she glanced back up at her husband and finished, "I know it's not your fault that this is happening… You're just very sick. Still....you just tried to _murder_ me tonight and I can't keep you here anymore…"

"_I tried to….what?_ How? What-What did I do, Darling?" Jareth asked with anguish in his eyes.

Sarah had her hand on the handle of the driver's side door, and she kept her back turned towards him as she whispered, "_You tried to dance me to death…_"

At that she jumped into the vehicle and locked the automatic doors after she closed herself within. She started the car and sped out of the driveway without taking another look at him.


	12. Custody Battle

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 12  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked: **__**M+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 12: Custody Battle**

Jareth had checked himself into the Ancorra Psychiatric Facility the next morning as Sarah had asked him to. He loved her too much to place her through anymore pain. However, Jareth's problems and supposed hallucinations didn't go away, no matter how strong they made his medications. For the next month and a half, random little monsters, Sir Diddymus, and Ludo the walking carpet, disturbed his sleep.

He wasn't the only one having those delusions either. Most of the other patients in the hospital also saw what he was seeing. One patient patted Jareth on the shoulder and reassured, "Yup! Those little monsters were _really_ hiding under the bed, swinging from the track lights, and singing cute little songs."

Jareth promptly turned to the man with an annoyed look upon his face and muttered, "Oh, and why should I believe a chap who thinks that he sees Vincent Price riding atop a goldfish in his cereal bowl every morning at breakfast?"

He figured, since he was in the schizophrenic wing of the hospital, that he had probably entertained the other patients unawares and they started hallucinating the same things that he had. However, the psychiatrists said that Jareth was well behaved and caused nobody any problems.

One rainy evening, Jareth was staring out of his window and thinking about Sarah. He was worried about her and his children as well. He wondered if Sahara's mental state had improved at all since he had left, and if Jaime had forgiven him for dumping him down the well. He also wondered how his twins were doing in school, and if they had met any new boys to squeal about. Jareth smiled as he thought of the first time Jennifer had brought home a boyfriend. The guy had an earring in his ear, and Jareth kept laughing at it, which made Jennifer yell at him right in front of her guest.

One of the nurses tapped on Jareth's room door and said, "Mr. King, you have a visitor."

Jareth followed the nurse as he wondered who would venture out on a night like this. As he walked into the visitation room, he saw her…

_Sarah…_

His face lit up as he walked towards her. She had been crying again. He could tell, because her eyes always got puffy and red for hours after she did. He shook his head. It was perfectly understandable, since she was going through a lot right now, and he believed that he was the root of her problems.

The nurse began to walk out of the room and explained, "We're monitoring the room with cameras, Mrs. King, so if you have any problems just shout or wave. We'll be watching."

"Thank you," Sarah replied softly as Jareth took a seat on the opposite side of a long table directly in front of her.

Sarah took a deep breath in, but paused. Jareth didn't say anything. Finally, after she had composed herself, she asked, "Jareth? You've been in this place the whole time, right? You haven't been left out for any reason at all, have you?"

"No, Sarah," He replied straightforwardly. "I couldn't even escape from here if I tried without being medically released by at least three doctors' signatures first. They have a ten-foot fence, with a barbed-wire link around the top, and at least three cameras monitoring every room, including the showers and bathrooms. Then, there are at least five security guards and twelve nurses walking the floors at all times. It's like one big gigantic maze with all of the twists and turns in this place, but simply put, I'd honestly need magic to escape from here."

After another deep pause between the two of them, Jareth added, "Why? Is something wrong, Darling?"

Sarah sniffled, "I hardly know anymore…."

Jareth wanted to embrace her, but refrained from doing so. He was afraid of hurting her. She continued, "There was a major power outage in the entire neighborhood yesterday. At first, I thought it was a fuse again, so I walked down to the basement with a flashlight… and there were snakes."

"You saw a snake in the basement?" Jareth asked, and then added, "Although... it _has_ been raining an awful lot lately, and the creature probably slithered in through a hole in order to get dry."

"No, Jareth," Sarah blinked as she looked down at the table. "The entire basement was covered from ceiling to floor with living, slithering, black snakes."

"My god," He blinked in disbelief. "Did- did you call the exterminator?"

Sarah sighed, "No! I screamed, threw the flashlight at them, and then ran out the front door. Then, I was attacked by a low-flying owl. The damned thing chased me almost down to the convenience store on the corner… and I would have run all of the way there, but I tripped and fell in the ditch on the side of the street and nearly drowned thanks to all of the flooding."

Jareth asked, "Are you okay? Why would an owl attack a human? I thought that they only hunted and chased mice and other small rodents."

Sarah began to cry as she continued, "I came back to the house covered in mud and completely drenched from the pouring rain… but…"

She had stopped to take a deep breath in, and then finished, "The children were gone when I stepped back inside."

Jareth shifted nervously, "Did-Did they run to the neighbor's house? Do you think they left because they saw the snakes too? Sarah? You found them…Oh, please tell me that you found them again!"

Sarah shook her head and broke down, "No. But this was hanging on the door with a ball-knobbed staff rammed into it, which pierced right through to the other side of the door."

Sarah handed Jareth a crumpled piece of parchment, which contained a message that looked like it had been written in red-blood. He unfolded it as she tucked her hands tightly around herself and shivered.

He read outloud, "_Dear Miss Williams_,"

He took a breath and continued, "_It was such a pity that you had run off with hardly a word or even a hearty goodbye, which would have been the proper thing to do upon leaving somebody's home unexpectedly. As you well know, what's said is said and I **cannot** allow certain violations within my kingdom to go unpunished any longer. It with deep regret that I **must** inform you that thirteen hours have expired from an illicit wish that your careless daughter, Sahara had uttered some time ago_."

Jareth continued, "_She was given full disclosure of the more than generous time allotment in which to solve my Labyrinth, but she failed to do so, and therefore I have come to collect on my payment as promised. While I have pondered long and hard on how I should handle this matter, I have decided to make a fair trade that will suit your **greatest** desires. If you would surrender yourself willingly over to me, then I will happily release your children from my castle beyond the Goblin City and return them to your brother Toby for future parental care_."

Jareth King paused for a moment in shock before he finished, "_If, however, you do not comply with these terms, then I'm afraid I will be forced to take extreme measures and place your daughter's debts down upon all of your children. I promise that you will **neither** see **nor** hear from them again. Dearest Sarah, I know that we are all reasonable people, so I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Kindest regards, Jareth, the Goblin King_."

Jareth King trailed off at the very end and began to tremble, "Sarah… I-I… I haven't left this place, I swear. You can check the logs. I haven't even written or called anyone, because I haven't earned those privileges yet. Everything, and I mean, everything is monitored in here."

Sarah just had her head buried in her hands. She was utterly traumatized. Jareth's head was killing him, as a sudden migraine had just begun. Sarah looked up at him after a few minutes and whispered, "I'm here. I surrender."

"Darling," Jareth started, "I didn't write that. I didn't take our children. Did you call the police?"

Sarah slammed her hands down onto the table and screamed, "YES! I'VE CALLED _EVERYBODY_! The only thing that the police found at the crime scene was a bunch of glitter and owl's feathers! The neighbors all think that I did it! None of them will even talk to me. Nobody will help me! You've won, Jareth! I'm absolutely trapped and you have me exactly where you want me! _I surrender_!"

Two male nurses ran into the room and immediately surrounded Jareth. They shouted, "Mrs. King? Are you okay, Ma'am? Do you want us to call a medic for you? Did he hurt you, Ma'am?"

At that second, the lights went out in the visitation room, and everything became deadly silent.

Security scurried into the room seconds later carrying flashlights as they searched the area. The two nurses had been rendered unconscious, Jareth King was standing in the darkness, and ….

"Sarah?" Jareth called. "Sarah, where are you?"

_No response._

The guards tethered Jareth as he became frantic, "No! You don't understand! My wife is gone. What happened to her!? SARAH!?"


	13. Danse Macabre

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 13  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__ M__**+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 13: Danse Macabre**

The music was light and chipper as crowds of masked people swirled about on the white marble dance floor. The candle chandeliers hung sporadically about the ballroom and covered the entire area with a bright luminescence. The whole place was incredibly teeming with various human-like individuals and there didn't seem to be enough room to move about the place amiss all of the full gowns that the female attendees wore.

"Please," Sarah pleaded as the Goblin King twirled her around, while he was adorned lavishly in his sparkly-blue formal jacket ensemble that he reserved only for this occasion.

She was exhausted and leaning on him by this point. He made a rather over-emphatic pout at her, and then purred, "Oh, now why the long face, Darling? Isn't this what you always dreamt of so long ago?"

Sarah glanced across the strangely twisted room and saw her daughters huddled at the top of the stairs. They had been clothed exactly as she was in pristine white, satin gowns with silver embroidery that meandered throughout the gown and sparkling crystals near the bodice and puffed sleeves. The sea of people were pointing mockingly and laughing at them. Sarah turned back to the king and cried, "You said that you'd let them go if I surrendered to you, Jareth…"

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows as wisps of blue-colored hair mingled with his golden blonde locks, and then fell about his face randomly. He smiled deviously and replied, "Yes, I thought about that arrangement, but then I realized that you would probably play the same tricks as last time and I simply can't have you scampering away, whilst leaving my kingdom in shambles again…. now, can I?"

Sarah ignored his question and asked, "Where's Jaime?"

"Who?" The Goblin King responded with a puzzled look.

"Our son… Jaime?" Sarah whispered, because she was so frazzled that she could hardly speak at this point. "W-Where is he?"

"Ah! The blind little mouse! Yes," The King of the Goblins exclaimed excitedly, "You know, I think I will call him 'Jareth', because he's got my eyes…even if he can't see out of them."

"_Where_ is _he_?!" Sarah asked forcefully this time, as she tightened her hands around the Goblin King's gloved fingers.

"Well, since he brags so incessantly about how he can 'see' better than everyone, I decided to test him against my Labyrinth from the very beginning."

Sarah furrowed her brow furiously, and gave the king a shove, "YOU! You sent Jaime outside by himself into an unknown place? _He's only three!!! _What kind of crazy nut are you?!?"

She paused as she remembered who she was talking to. The Goblin King snickered and chided, "Don't worry, _Mom_. If he's half as good as he says he is, then he'll be just fine… unless he chooses the door that leads to certain death… He's quite a smart child, nonetheless, so I'm confident that he'll be fine…for now. And speaking of children, I was utterly shocked when I discovered that you had children sometime ago."

Sarah turned her head to the side and glanced at him strangely as he continued, "You see, I had stopped your previous marriage from ever occurring, and just in the nick-of-time I should say…but then, some years later, I realized that another man must have snuck in under my ever-watching gaze, and I was completely unaware of it until after your third daughter, Sahara had been born to you."

Sarah backed away as the king grappled her closer again. He scolded, "No, no. I'm not finished talking yet, Dearest. Now then, who is the man… _this_ 'Mr. King' as you call him? For I'd very much like to meet with him."

Sarah paused because she absolutely didn't know how to reply to him. What was there to say to him? How could she answer, who she assumed to be, an insane person?

The King of the Goblins finally muttered, "Oh, come now, Darling. You can tell me. If you don't, I'll find out anyway. I have my sources."

He spun her around again, as she nearly tripped over her own feet, because they hurt so badly, and then he continued, "I will admit though, he is quite an ever elusive fellow. I wonder how he's managed to stay hidden for all of these years. I can't even see him within my magic crystals… Mmm, I wonder if Higgle's behind this madness?"

"His name is '_HOGGLE'_!" Someone spat from across the other side of the ballroom, as the room fell silent and all of the masked people turned to look. The Goblin King had a strange look overshadow his face as Sarah twisted about to see who had been the source of the voice. Although it sounded very familiar to her, the whole concept of whether it was actually true just seemed highly impossible. As she caught a glimpse of the figure that pushed its way through the cluttered room, her eyes opened in shock.

"J-Jareth?" She whispered.


	14. Hate to Burst Your Bubble

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 14  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__ M__**+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 14: Hate to Burst Your Bubble**

"I beg your pardon," the Goblin King spat indignantly as he gazed upon a near reflection of himself that was standing on the other side of the ballroom.

"You should beg," Jareth King replied with his eyes narrowed to dangerous looking slits. "And by the time I get through with you, I'll have you begging on your knees."

Sure enough, Jareth King had entered into the Goblin King's ballroom within a bubble. Julia King's eyes traveled from her father, and then back to the Goblin King as she promptly fainted. Jennifer was a bit stronger not to suffer the perils of her twin sister's sudden blood rush to her head. However, she felt like someone has stolen her breath away from her and she couldn't say anything.

Sahara, on the other hand, was jumping up and down and cheering. "Go, Daddy!" She shouted. "Kick his butt!"

The Goblin King spun about to face the fifteen-year-old girl, but Jareth King cleared his throat to draw the king's attention away from the teenager and back towards himself again. The king asked with much delay in his voice, "Who…_are_…you?"

Jareth's presence was overwhelming, even to the masked dancers and they immediately parted to form a clear path down the center, which allowed him to stroll through completely unhindered. His charisma was powerful and his gaze was unwavering as he strutted calmly forward until he was standing directly in front of the King of Goblins. He was dressed in a casual white oxford button up shirt, with pure white, tailored pants, and shiny, white shoes to match. Jennifer thought that he looked like a wonderful dream come true, despite the weirdness that was occurring. As Jareth locked eyes with his identical competitor, he shouted, "_Now_, g_et your damned hands off of my wife, you psychopathic freak!_"

At that, Jareth King swung his hands down between Sarah and the Goblin King's hands, which broke the king's grip upon her. She immediately fell to the floor after her physical support was gone. Sarah's husband immediately bent down to remove the glass heels from her lacerated feet and thrust them furiously across the room at several of the guests. Then, he cradled Sarah gently into his arms and lifted her close to him.

Sarah muttered through partially relieved tears, "Am-Am I dreaming? H-Have I gone mad?"

Jareth smoothed his hands endearingly upon her face and whispered into her ear, "I certainly _assure_ you that you are _not_ insane, my Love. However, I'm positively sure that I'm quite crazy….but only crazy about you and our wonderful children."

Sarah smiled and wrapped her arms tightly around her husband.

The Goblin King pursed his lips angrily, knowing full well that he didn't like to be ignored. He tapped his heel lightly as a gigantic armored robot with an axe appeared from behind Jareth and Sarah, which sent them diving towards the floor with one swing. Sahara screamed while Jennifer had to hold her sister back, in order to keep her from running down towards the metallic monstrosity. After Mr. & Mrs. King were grounded, the Goblin King walked up and asked again, "Now, who are you? And let's be civil about this, shall we?"

"'_Civil'_?" Jareth asked, "You call kidnapping my family and making sport of them, a _civil_ action!? You've frightened the bloody hell out of them! You've even psychologically and physically abused my wife and children for your own personal amusement! As far as I see it, I don't owe you any introduction at all, you _pompass jackass_!"

The Goblin King sighed and lifted up a magical glass crystal. He twirled it in his hand and glowered, "Now, you're being incredibly rude. If you don't answer me at once, then I'm afraid I shall be obliged to do something dreadful to the blind one…"

"Jaime," Sarah gasped as she looked frantically into her husband's eyes.

Jareth took a deep breath and answered without any more delays, "I'm Jareth King! There! Now, I've told you, so leave my son alone!"

The king narrowed his eyes at Mr. King and muttered, "How amazing that you should carry my name and resemble me so perfectly…well, almost perfectly. You're actually an utter disgrace as far as needing a manicure and a bit of flair within your wardrobe…._Mmm_, and possibly a more fashionable hairstyle would suit you better as well."

"Oh, and this harsh critique is coming from a chap who looks like he just raided Liberace's closet and attended a Poison concert sometime back in 1986," spat Jareth.

The Goblin King ignored Jareth's remark as he produced a staff from out of thin air. Sarah jumped as she recognized it to be the exact one that had been rammed through the front door of her house with the 'note' attached to it. The king placed it under Jareth's chin and gazed deeply into his eyes. "_Could it be…?_" He started as he trailed off mid-question.

The King of the Goblins walked away for a second while he pondered this strange conundrum. Finally, after much thought and consideration, he spun back around and said, "Dispel him."

The Humongous began to draw its axe backwards to ready a powerful final blow at Jareth King's head, however Jareth King stated smugly before the axe hit him, "I'm not going anywhere, but you certainly are."

At that second, the Goblin King had disappeared from the bubble-ballroom and all of the guests vanished with him, including the Humongous. When the two girls, with Julia in tow on her sister's shoulder, had seen that the room was empty, they quickly kicked off their glass slippers and ran down towards their father and mother.

Jennifer squealed, "Daddy! He's gone!"

Sahara hugged her father and mother and then said, "Daddy! He disappeared! How did you do that?"

"Later, Darling," Jareth patted his daughter on the head. He knelt to check on Julia, and when he saw that she was fine he muttered, "We have to find Jaime and then a way out of this place very quickly."

Sahara banged her hands on a crystalline mirrored-wall that stood by a table and said, "Well, there's lots of mirrors around this stupid place, and since I haven't seen any doors in or out ..._well, you know_..."

Sarah nodded and remarked, "I guess our luck can't get any worse if we start breaking mirrors..."

Jennifer lifted a chair and smirked, "Here. Allow me."

At that, the twin swung the chair backwards, and then catapulted it at the mirror as hard as she could. The glass immediately shattered as soon as the metal item made contact, and then everybody began to feel themselves falling downward, until they flopped into an old dilapidated bedroom at the center of a trash dump. With the exception of Jareth, everybody had been returned back to their everyday clothing that they had been wearing just before they were taken into the ballroom. Julia began to stir and finally awoke to greet her family.

She asked, "What happened? I think I just had the weirdest nightmare."

Jareth walked over to help his daughter back to her feet quickly, and said, "Yes, but it's not quite over yet, Darling. We need to retrieve your brother and leave at once."

The Junk Hag confronted them before they departed the area, but luckily Ludo had arrived to assist Jareth again and they left the old garbage goblin behind as they walked back into the thicket of a nearby forest. The big furry creature escorted everyone all the way back to the boundaries of the Labyrinth where Sir Diddymus, who had Jaime tucked safely onto his _'noble steed'_ Ambrosious, had intercepted them. As soon as they said their goodbyes to the two creatures, Jareth held his family close to him and instantly they were taken back to the human world.

Sarah didn't recognize the room that they had been taken to, but it looked like a hospital area of some sorts. It didn't matter to her either way, other than she had finally escaped from that strange retched place…_whatever that place was_… and had all of her children back. Sarah smiled as she had thought about how Jareth had been her hero that evening. However, as she turned about within the sterile room, she saw him laying face up on a metal-framed bed next to her. Jareth King was strapped in tightly with tethers latched unto the bed. _He was fast asleep!_ Sarah limped painfully over to him and shook him gently, but he didn't stir. Sahara exchanged glances of utter perplexity with her sister Jennifer, as Julia scooped Jaime up within her arms, because the little boy was trying to run over to find out why the mood had suddenly changed again.

_He sensed things like that._

Finally, Sarah remarked outloud, "He's breathing, but he's out cold. What happened to him?"

A voice from behind her responded, "They got him with that needle and put him out ta' sleep hours ago… It wasn't long after ya' disappeared, Sarah. I don't know what was in that stuff that they gave 'im, but I ain't been able ta' wake him at all."


	15. Two Sides to Every Story

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 15  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__ M__**+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 15: Two Sides to Every Story **

Sarah's eyes stared wondrously at the dwarf as he approached her with a slow waddle. Then, he hopped up onto the side of the bed and sat next to Jareth, who was sleeping away. Sarah asked, "Who are you?"

The dwarf looked downtrodden and replied, "Aw, they said that you had lost all of yer' mind, but I didn't think that it would hurt this much ta' have you forget about me, Sarah."

"I'm sorry," Sarah apologized. "I…"

Hoggle interrupted, "No need ta' say yer' sorry. Jareth did a terrible thing to you, but its not really all his fault, you see..."

Sarah shook her head to show that she didn't understand him, as Sahara exclaimed, "Mommy! There isn't any other way out of this room, except through this locked door. How do we get out?!"

Sarah pulled her daughter away from the door and huddled her family unto the floor by Hoggle's feet. She looked up at him and asked, "Please…tell me what's going on here."

Hoggle drew in a deep breath and replied, "I'll tell you the parts that I know about. I only hope that ya' don't hate me when I'm done tellin' you about it… 'cause we all did what we had to do back then."

Sarah nodded, and then Hoggle began to narrate to her, "After you defeated the Goblin King, when you was just a young girl, you managed to live happily ever after… However, Jareth did not. His heart was literally broken into two halves when you left him behind. '_Rejection'_ ain't been one of the easiest things for the Goblin King to deal with, especially since he had actually fallen in love with you towards the end. Anyway, from what I gather, Jareth couldn't stand the pain so, he threw all of those _lovin', carin', and joyful_ emotions along with the other half of his heart far, far away from him. It was said by some, that Jareth's severed heart had died long ago, but I know that it didn't 'cause I'm the one who took it and tried to save it. I felt that it was the only good part of Jareth left and it was worth keepin' alive. I knew that Jareth wouldn't like me meddling in his business, so I took the piece of heart and planted it deep within you, Sarah, where it remained hidden for some years."

Sarah took a deep breath in, as she pondered what Hoggle was saying to her. He continued, "I felt that part of Jareth's heart belonged to you anyway. Well, eventually, you found another guy and got engaged.. _I think that's the word ya' called it_…but Jareth had been watching you closely from within his Labyrinth and he decided to kill your new boyfriend and everybody else who was a part of your future wedding."

Jennifer whispered to herself, "_I can't believe that he attempted to murder my mother…"_

Hoggle overheard Jenny and nodded, "Yeah, I know… it was shocking to me too! Jareth ain't never done anything so cruel before! It was _never_ his way, but when he cast all of the good stuff out of himself, all he was left with was just the bad stuff that did bad things."

Sarah blinked and looked over at her sleeping husband. The dwarf continued, "I ain't really sure what happened from that point on, but I can tell you what I think happened."

"Go on," Sarah prodded.

Hoggle continued, "I'm thinking that it was probably the other part of Jareth's heart that saved your life, but I'm also thinkin' that maybe it was knocked out of your insides when the other Jareth did what he did to ya'. I don't really know the details of what actually happened, but I know it was bad, 'cause we never heard from ya' again. You forgot about us completely. You probably don't even remember my name, huh?"

Sarah shook her head as the dwarf jumped off of the bed and took a bow while he introduced himself, "The name's 'Hoggle'. Nice ta' meet ya' again!"

"Likewise, Hoggle," Sarah smiled, and then asked, "So, what do think happened after Jareth's heart was thrust out of me?"

"I'm thinkin' that maybe it took on a life of its own, but I'm not really certain. The only thing that I _DO_ know is that Jareth's piece of heart that I placed within you is gone, but after I checked this guy," Hoggle pointed upwards towards the sleeping Jareth King, "I found that he had the missing piece of heart that used to be inside of you, Sarah. It would make lots of sense about why the Goblin King couldn't see him with his magic. He would never suspect himself of stealin' you away, now would he?"

Sahara held up her hand to pause the conversation, "Whoa! Wait a minute! You're not actually saying _that_ terrible Goblin King and my Daddy were once a complete person, are you?"

Hoggle nodded regretfully, "I'm afraid so, Kiddo."

Jennifer shook her finger, "…but one is the Goblin King and the other is my Dad. I mean, they aren't really the same person anymore, are they? Not if one is good and the other is bad…."

Hoggle sighed and raised his hairy eyebrows in exasperation, "No, no! Your Pop and the Goblin King are the same guy…_well, sort of_... I mean, it ain't an easy thing to explain!"

Julia replied, "…but they are, in fact, two different people, right? We saw two of them inside of that ballroom tonight. It didn't seem like one was very keen of the other one …My father wouldn't actually love us and try to kill us at the same time, right?"

Sarah held her breath, because she knew that the next words from the dwarf would determine if she could ever trust her husband again. Hoggle sensed Sarah's sudden tension and patted her on the shoulder, "Don't'cha worry, Sarah. Yer' daughter is right… Jareth has been split into two separate folks, and I was wrong when I blamed your Jareth for throwin' little Jaime down into the oubliette. I just hope ya' forgive me fer' yellin' at him and I hope he forgives me too. I didn't mean it, but at the time, I just didn't realize that there were two of him."

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief as she hugged the dwarf. Hoggle pushed her back and said, "No! Don't'cha go kissin' me again and gettin' me bogged twice! That ain't fair!"

Sarah laughed and replied, "I won't kiss you, I promise, but you have no idea how wonderful it was to hear you say those words."

Sahara muttered, "It still doesn't explain half of the things that just happened back there. I mean, the Goblin King has those powers, but my dad… he's just Daddy…"

Sarah stood up and caressed the side of Jareth's face as she replied to her youngest daughter, "If I understand Hoggle correctly, then I believe that your father has the exact same powers as the other Jareth. He just doesn't realize it. He's been living as a human with us for so long, that he has no recollection of who he really is, except for a name…How would he have known either way?"

Julia sighed and said, "At least with Dad protecting us, that Goblin King-guy won't ever bother us again."

Hoggle shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry to tell you, Kid, but the Goblin King will never stop chasin' you as long as ya' belong to Sarah, not to mention he'll never stop chasin' her either. He'll just keep crossing over the boundaries of the Underground and spend all eternity trappin' you and your family forever and ever if he's got to…"

"Then what do we do?" Jennifer asked frantically.

"I don't know," the dwarf replied, "but I'm hoping that your dad can help us. The sooner he wakes up, the better. We're gonna need all of the help we can get against the other Jareth."


	16. Invasion of the Baby Snatcher

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 16  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__ **M**__**+ for Mature content**_

* * *

**Chapter 16: Invasion of the Baby Snatcher**

Sarah and her family had finally been discovered inside of the mental facility's isolation room several hours later. She bantered for Jareth's immediate release after receiving over two hundred apologies from the clinical staff, security, and a multitude of doctors. She agreed not to sue if they gave she and her family a ride home, even though Sarah had never threatened or thought about taking any legal action against them in the first place. She was merely glad that the hospital didn't leave her inside of that room with Jareth.

After being ferried home by ambulance, Sarah cautiously entered the doors of her house alongside her children. Because Jareth was still sleeping off the 400cc of Phenothiazine that the hospital had injected him with, the EMTs had to bring him in on a stretcher. They placed him gently on the sofa as his wife had specified. He didn't stir, but one of the emergency medical technicians commented, "He's been exhibiting a lot of REM state brain patterns, so I sure hope whatever he has been dreaming about is good…other than that, his vitals are normal and he should awaken in about two or three days after the high levels of tranquilizers in his system wears off."

Sarah nodded to the technicians as they left her home. Her electricity was back on, and it was the middle of the morning. The rain had finally stopped, and everything seemed fine with a hazy, overcast sky glaring high above her neighborhood. However, despite everything being returned to normal, Sarah still had a strange foreboding feeling that something bad was going to happen, especially after she looked at the huge gaping hole in her front door where a staff had been rammed through.

Jareth awoke three days later, which put the family's minds at ease. Sarah had taken a medical leave of absence until further notice, in order to care for her husband while he recovered, but her mind was stressed about how she would manage the bills without any money coming in. Jareth King had showered, and dressed, and then joined the family in the kitchen as they shuffled about aimlessly in their morning rituals of readying for school.

Much to Sarah's chagrin, the television had been left on in the living room again, which only added to the chaos of the morning household. She swore that some days the electronic device had just turned itself on. As Jareth sat down at the head of the table, Sarah pecked him on the lips with a kiss. Her hands were full as she was carrying Jaime in one arm and in the other was a hot frying pan with newly cooked scrambled tofu.

She quickly set Jaime down within his seat as she began to distribute the food to the plates. Jennifer jumped down the stairs followed by Julia. They both scurried through the cabinets until they found a box of strawberry Poptarts.

Sarah stammered, "…But I've just cooked breakfast…"

Julia made a face when she saw the food in the pan, and Jennifer remarked, "Sorry, Mom, but we're late for school….again."

With that, Jennifer opened up the package and shared one of her uncooked toaster delights with her twin sister. Together they shouted in unison, "_SAHARA_! Hurry up!"

Julia finished, "You're going to miss the bus…again…"

"Why can't we just use the car, Mom?" Jennifer asked.

"Because it's not yours, Jenny," Sarah replied blatantly.

Sahara strutted down the stair adorned in her heavy pale makeup. She wore her black and red stripped, knee-high socks paired with her shiny, monster platform, black boots. They were accompanied with a short, pleated, red and black, plaid skirt, and a tight black collared oxford shirt that was purposely left untucked beneath a deep purple crewneck sweater with a red skull and crossbones emblem on the front. Basically, she was her normal _'gothed-out_' self for the day.

She gave her twin sisters a dirty look, as she was never a morning person, and then she played with the tofu on her plate after she had taken a seat near Jareth. He smiled at her coyly and twittered, "Good Morning, Sunshine!"

"Mnnn," Sahara replied with little enthusiasm.

Jaime grumbled at his plate, "But I- But I don't like this fluffy stuff, Mommy! It feels like yucky Jell-o."

Sarah tapped him on the shoulder and scolded, "Jaime, you're not supposed to feel it, you're supposed to eat it… Now, eat your breakfast! Do you want toast? Sahara, I can't drive you to school this morning, so please hurry up and ingest something…"

Sahara made another grumpy face and replied, "Whatever… I'm outty."

Sarah sighed as Sahara kissed her father goodbye on the forehead and Jareth remarked, "I do hope that you refrain from further abuse to yourself, Darling… there's so many other things in this world that are just waiting to devour you, after all."

Sarah furrowed her brows as she tried to contemplate what he was talking about. She attributed his random chatter to the after-effects of the drugs. Finally, she had enough of the television's incessant droning in the background, so she put the pan down into the sink and after running some water inside of it, she walked out into the living room.

The news reporter was continuing their story, "…and ornithologists state that the recent migration of crows into the area is probably attributed to the climate shift of global warming, however the unusually high concentrations of the birds has caused Philadelphia International and Newark International Airports to ground all of their flights into and out of the tri-state areas until a solution can be found to drive the birds back into the suburbs. And now to our meteorologist, Al Raker, who's going to report this morning's local forecast. Al? _Thank you, Cindy!_ Today's weather looks absolutely wonderful, except for that strange atmospheric disturbance that has developed over the eastern seacoasts of New Jersey and the Delaware River near the Philadelphia Metropolitan Areas. While the bizarre cloud formation contains absolutely no precipitation, there is a very low-pressure system associated with this storm, which is nearly similar to that of an eyewall within a category 5 hurricane. This issue has concerned the bridge and highway transit authorities of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and they are issuing several bridge, interstate, and Turnpike closures going into and out of the two states until further notice…."

_Click!_

Sarah put the remote controller down and shook her head as she muttered, "Stupid, unpredictable weather…."

As she walked back into the kitchen she murmured, "Tell me again, why we moved to New Jersey?"

Jareth just shrugged and chuckled. Sarah finally took her seat next to Jaime. The little boy still hadn't touched his tofu scramble. Sarah King turned to her husband and said, "Honestly, Sweetheart, I don't know how you do it sometimes…With the kids I mean."

"Well," Jareth smirked, "You could always say the magic words if they get to be too much of a burden… I'm sure the offer is still open for the Goblin King to take them, after all."

Jaime stiffened up and dropped his fork. Sarah sighed and picked it up off of the floor as she replied, "Could we not talk about _him_ this morning, please? I mean, what kind of sadistic person would actually wish their children away?"

Jareth cleared his throat as he stirred some cream into his coffee and muttered, "Actually, I believe that you wished your baby brother away, didn't you, Dearest?"

"I don't remember doing that, but I'm pretty sure that I was very sorry afterwards," Sarah answered. "Poor Toby. Did I really do that?"

Jareth nodded and said, "Of course you did, Darling, but what's said is said, after all…"

"My god…" Sarah whispered, "The Goblin King reminds me of a real-life version of Freddy Krueger, but instead of a disfigured child molester like Freddy, the King of the Goblins is an extraordinarily handsome baby-nabber and a deviously belligerent extortionist. At least people can tell that Freddy was evil just by looking at him…"

"Who's 'Freddy Krueger'?" Jareth asked with a frown.

Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Never mind… it doesn't matter anyway. Freddy isn't real… _I hope_, but the Goblin King apparently is. I'm just glad that you're back here with us again... Jaime, what's the matter, Sweetie? Don't you feel well?"

Jaime shook his head, as the color had completely drained from his face and tears began to well up within his eyes. Sarah felt the child's forehead and mumbled, "Oh, Jaime, I hope you didn't pick something up at that hospital… Mommy, can't afford to take you to a doctor this week."

"M-Mommy?" Jaime stuttered. "Can I go to Uncle Toby's house?"

"Maybe later," Sarah groaned as she turned her attention back towards Jareth, "Aren't you hungry, Hon? I know that the meds have probably made you feel terrible, but you haven't eaten in at least three days. You should at least try to eat something…"

"No, Mommy! Can I go to Uncle Toby's house, now?" Jaime interrupted before Jareth could answer.

Sarah took the plate away from Jaime, as it was apparent that the little toddler wasn't going to eat anything. She rustled his hair and replied, "Not now, Jay… Daddy has just woken up, and Mommy would like to spend the day making sure he's okay. Mmm?"

Sarah opened up the dishwasher and began to place the dirty plates and glasses within, while Jaime whispered very, very quietly, "_Mommy_, _I'm scared_."

Jareth stared at the toddler and then back to Sarah. She apparently didn't hear her son. Jareth King smiled and took a sip of his coffee, while his eyes stared unwavering at the small child.


	17. All the World's a Stage

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 17  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer__: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
__**This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked**__**M+ for Mature content**_

Sorry for the long delay in the new chapter submissions, but college life and work life conflicts have been bad this season. Thank you!

* * *

**Chapter 17: All the World's a Stage**

Sarah was exhausted as she hadn't slept well in days since her return home. Jaime's stubbornness had finally calmed after he had eaten some fruit that Jareth had given to his mother to give to him. The toddler promptly passed out several minutes later after mumbling something about being dizzy. Sarah disregarded it as sleepiness or a possible illness. She picked up her child, carried him upstairs to his bed, and then tucked him in. As she turned around to exit the child's room, Jareth blocked her path, which startled her and made her shutter at the same time. Sarah clutched at her chest, as she jumped back in fright.

Jareth smirked and asked, "Frightened, Love?"

She rapped him on the arm and replied, "Yes! Next time, make a sound or breathe or something… _my god_…Are you trying to kill me?"

She walked into her bedroom and he promptly followed behind her. Sarah stopped to glance out the window, and then she walked towards her bed in the corner. Upon her momentary look outside, she had mumbled, "It's so dark for noon. I suppose it's going to pour again."

At that, she turned and sat on her side of the bed. Without another word, she lay back unto her pillow and wrapped the comforter around herself. Jareth followed suit on the other side of the bed. Sarah snuggled up to him and whispered, "I'm so tired. I just can't keep my eyes open any longer."

"Pray tell, Dearest, did you happen to eat some of that fruit that I gave to Jaime?"

Sarah shook her head and replied softly, "No. I only cut the peach into slices so Jaime could handle it better…but I didn't even nibble it, not even a little bit. _I hope it was okay…_"

Jareth raised his eyebrows, "Not even a taste, Mmmm?"

Sarah finished as she closed her eyes, "Well… I did lick the juice that leaked onto my fingers…"

"Pity."

"Mmmm? What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Jareth replied with a blink. "Do have pleasant dreams, Darling."

"Mmmm…"

Suddenly, as Jareth was closing his eyes in thought, he was snapped back into attention when Sarah shook him back into reality. She was standing over him on the floor by his side of the bed and looking down at him endearingly. He rubbed his eyes as he muttered, "Is this your dream?"

Sarah smiled and replied, "No, babe. It's not. You fell asleep on the bed next to me yesterday afternoon, but I woke up two hours later after a good nap and you didn't. In fact, you remained sleeping throughout dinner last night even after I tried to wake you, but you just didn't stir. It's morning now, and I figured I had better wake you up, before I have to classify you as a comatose corpse."

Jareth sat up groggily and looked about completely disoriented. Sarah tugged lightly at his arm until he was on his feet again.

She continued after a lengthy pause, "The doctors said it would take a while to work the tranquilizers out of your system. Come on… I have breakfast ready downstairs, and you still haven't eaten anything since before you were brought home from the hospital. You'll feel better if you eat something, and it will help dilute the meds out of your bloodstream."

Jareth was scratching his head as he followed her down the stairs. The television was off in the living room as the girls were sitting around the table squabbling within the kitchen.

They stopped immediately at their father's entrance and smiled heartily at him when he entered into the room. Jaime was playing with his food, as usual. Sarah touched her son on the shoulder and said, "It's oatmeal, Jaime. You like oatmeal, remember?"

Jaime was like any average toddler and had a finicky appetite sometimes. He moaned, "I don't like raisins, Mommy…Why did you put them in?"

Sarah threw her hands up in the air and exclaimed, "Jaime! Just pull the raisins out, for Pete's sake!"

"I am!" The child replied defiantly with a huff.

Sarah rolled her eyes at her son's tantrum, but smiled when she looked over at her daughter Sahara. The girl actually looked normal for once, in Sarah's opinion of course…  
As Jareth took a seat across from the fifteen-year-old girl, her appearance didn't escape his notice, despite his confusion. He remarked, "Wow! You look quite undone, Darling… Not feeling well?"

Sahara balked, but didn't respond either way. Sarah leaned close to her husband's ear and whispered, "I'll tell you what happened after she leaves."

Sahara gulped down her breakfast, and then left the table without saying a word. Jenny and Julia giggled as their younger sister walked away. When she was out the front door, they broke down into hysterical laughter. As tears of extreme mockery began to stream down Jennifer's face, Sarah scolded, "Jenny, stop that!"

"But, Mom, it's friggin' hilarious!"

Julia nodded and added while hanging on her twin's shoulder, "Yeah, I mean the school nerd of all people… Who would have thought?"

Sarah raised her eyebrows, "You girls are going to miss your bus if you don't hurry… And leave your sister alone today! Okay?"

"Oh, HELL, no!" Jenny snickered as she grabbed Julia by the arm and they ran towards the front door that Sahara had just slammed behind her. "Hurry up, Jules! Let's get to the stop early so we can tease her about it longer!"

"Hey!" Sarah shouted as she tried to look threatening and angry, but was doing a terrible job, since she was stifling back giggles herself.

Neither of the twins hesitated as their mother called after them. They grabbed their books and ran out the door, slamming it behind them as they exited.

Sarah finally took her seat next to Jaime. The toddler was just wrangling the last raisin from his hot cereal with a _tsk_. Sarah ignored it and poured her soymilk into her bowl of breakfast grains.

She smirked as she raised the spoon to her mouth and said, "Sahara just won the role in the high school musical rendition of '_Romeo and Juliet'_. Unfortunately, she has to star opposite of the …_um_… school genius. I guess that's what I was able to gather between her sobs yesterday anyway. She's pretty upset because apparently, the only reason this science-math wiz ever auditioned for the role of Romeo to begin with is because he has … _ahem_… a crush on Sahara. Anyway, Sahara refuses to dress in her normal attire, because she's hoping by looking plain and boring, that she'll make him lose interest in her and he'll quit the play."

Jareth, who had had worn a continuous look of utter perplexity since he had been awoken by Sarah, began to look unabashedly amused, especially around the corners of his mouth. They began to tug upwards in a devious grin. Sarah mirrored his expression, but nearly choked on her food when little Jaime asked loudly between a mouthful of oatmeal, "Is my sister going to marry nerd-boy, Mommy?"

After taking a minute to catch her breath and dislodge the food that had gone down her windpipe, Sarah finally answered weakly between coughs, "His…_cough_… name is…_choke_… Jarvis, Honey, and no… _wheeze_… it's just a school play."

Jareth wasted no time in prying, "Does she dream about this boy, Sarah?"

After a few more chokes and wheezes, Sarah replied, "No! I doubt it. They're a bit mismatched… _to say the least_. Actually, I think he dreams about her, but that's as far as it goes…until she procured the role of Juliet. I told her to be careful what she wished for… Of course, she never listens."

Jaime jumped back into the conversation by adding, "She has… she has to _kiss_ him too! Mommy, does kissing make babies?"

Sarah laughed and answered, "No, Jaime, it doesn't."

"But what makes babies, Mommy?"

_Sex_, rang out in Sarah's mind, but outloud she answered, "Mommies and Daddies make babies together, Sweetie."

"Do they use tape to put them together or glue?" Jaime asked.

After giving Jaime another smirk, Sarah silenced her son by changing the subject, "Honey, is your oatmeal too cold?"

"No, Mommy."

"Okay, then you had better eat it before it gets cold and lumpy."

Jaime nodded as Sarah sighed and turned her attention back to Jareth. She whispered, "Tape and glue… if only it were that easy."

Jareth nodded airily, but didn't really acknowledge the conversation between mother and son. Disorientation was ringing loudly within his head, and he wasn't sure what was going on. He had been pretty sure that he had been fully awake when he lain down in the bed next to Sarah yesterday afternoon, however, as he kept replaying the moment inside of his mind something strange must have had occurred between that time frame, and now he was trying to sort it all out.

He drew his conclusions, in the end, that nothing was explainable, nor did anything make sense.

Jareth looked outside and saw the sun hovering brightly in the sky. It seemed to be mocking him as the rays began to creep through the windows of the kitchen.


	18. Requiem for a Dream

"**Keep the Magic Alive"  
****Chapter 18  
**By Aiijuin

_Disclaimer: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!  
_**_This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked M+ for Mature content  
_**The title of this chapter is not original, but named after the movie, "Requiem for a Dream", which I have never watched, but I know stars Jennifer Connelly... I used the title for irony only.

* * *

**Chapter 18: Requiem for a Dream**

Jareth continued throughout most of the day completely consumed in thought about what could have caused him to be in this position and how. Sarah, on the other hand, had spent most of the day in a euphoric mood and found herself sublimely happy for the first time in a while. She had much to celebrate, in her opinion. Jareth was back with her and she believed from Hoggle's story that he wasn't a mentally transfigured monster afterall…

She walked around the house picking up Jaime's stray toys. While all seemed mostly normal, Sarah did denote that Jaime's pretend play had deviated from the atypical imaginary games that he had engaged in. The little boy had grabbed one of Jennifer's Barbie Dolls this morning from her bedroom, which she wouldn't have minded since she no longer had any use for them at eighteen years old. The Barbie was the most unlikeliest toy that Jenny would have suspected her brother to grab, but nonetheless he took the ballerina ballroom Barbie with the glittery, poofy pink gown from the dusty, old toy chest, which was stuffed into the corner of her bedroom.

Throughout the day, he would run the doll along the floor through the hallways and make it speak as if it were real. Twice Sarah walked up to her son and asked what the doll was doing.

The first time, Jaime answered, "The evil king placed her into a big maze and she's running to solve it, Mommy."

Sarah answered with a slight chill that ran down her back, "Well, I hope she gets out and is safe in the end, Sweetie."

Jaime shook his head at his mother and replied, "Nothing has ever ended, Mommy. She never got out."

Sarah shot a double take at her three-year-old, but he had run down the hall too quickly for her to pry any further. The second time she asked what the doll was doing, Jaime answered, "Her dreams are swallowing her up, Mommy."

"Why, Jaime?"

"Because her will is as strong as his is, and her kingdom is as great…," Jaime stated very matter-of-factly. "The evil king made a big mistake when he brought her into his house."

"Why?" Sarah asked again.

"Because, _Silly_, her mind has taken over everything," Jaime giggled as if he expected Sarah to understand his logic completely. "She needs to wake up. You know, Mommy, wake up?"

Sarah nodded as a look of confusion spread across her face. She didn't really understand what her toddler was getting at. She would have asked more, but Jareth walked through the hall and Jaime touched his father's leg while whispering, "_You have no power over me…_"

Then, the small child sped off in the other direction with the Barbie in his hand. Sarah just looked at Jareth and shrugged. Jareth didn't hear Jaime anyway. His thoughts were so strident in his head right now, that there could have been a concert going on around him and he would have never known. He glanced at Sarah for a moment and then continued passing by as if he were lingering in a perpetual dream state.

It didn't seem to bother Sarah at all. She figured he would continue this behavior for a while, since the doctors said it was normal for him to exhibit signs of the medication for the next few weeks or so until it had completely worked out of his system.

Sarah followed Jareth down the hall into the living room, where she grabbed him by the elbow and said, "Hey! How about you go outside and get the mail for me? I'd appreciate it."

Jareth spun the other direction without a reply, opened the front door, and walked outside. He strode down the driveway until he reached the mailbox at the end. As he was reaching inside of the mail receptacle he noticed something strange. Jareth blinked to be sure he wasn't imagining it, but low-and-behold Sarah's neighbors were all outside on this overly perfect picturesque morning and were mowing their lawns in unison.

He watched as the row of neighbors dressed in their brightly colored oxford shirts with knicker-pants and sneakers with knee high socks, each pushed their identical green lawnmowers up and down the front yards in horizontal rows. They were all in sync with one another. Jareth couldn't help but stare in disbelief. Who wouldn't? It was the most bizarre spectacle that one could have ever seen in a non-staged environment.

Jareth continued to watch until his train of thought was broken again as a big yellow school bus stopped down the street and dropped off Jennifer, Julia, Sahara, and a plethora of other teenagers with them.

Sahara had her face buried in a book, but it was more intentional looking rather than interest-based. The other students were making _kissy_ sounds as she walked away from them with her eyes narrowed to near slits. Jenny and Jules didn't make matters better for their sister. They helped the others ridicule her. Sahara marched up to her father, took one look at him with her face red in exasperation, and shouted, "_Only you can end this_!"

Then, she walked into the house slamming the door behind her. Julia and Jennifer strutted towards their home dancing a mock_ Cancan_ dance. They were singing in unison and laughing between each of the lyrics, "Dance-Magic-Dance! Hey! Jump-Magic-Jump!"

As the dynamic duo passed by their father at the mailbox, Jenny waved enthusiastically and said, "Hey, Daddy!"

Julia repeated, "Hey, Daddy! How are you feeling?"

Neither waited to hear his answer, but they continued dancing past him and singing, "Dance-Magic-Dance!"

Jennifer added with an offhanded chortle, "And Sahara totally digs Nerd-Boy! Nyah-Nyah!"

Jaime walked out of the front door with the Barbie still in his hand and made his way carefully towards his father. He stopped next to Jareth and leaned his head on him. Jareth looked down at the small blind child. Jaime was stroking the soft blonde hair on the doll. Jareth didn't react either way towards the boy, but continued to feel dazed and confused to the entire situation occurring around him.

Suddenly, Jaime did something unexpected. He ran out into the middle of the street with several cars coming straight towards him. He gazed at them calmly as they sped towards him unhindered. Jareth's eyes opened wide as he realized what was about to happen. He dropped the mail in his hand and sprinted towards the center of the street where Jaime was. The car's driver must have just caught glimpse of what was occurring, because at that moment the brakes could be heard squealing loudly.

Sarah ran out of the house to see what all the commotion was and screamed when she saw her son and husband in the direct path of a moving vehicle. Sarah King ran frantically towards the street. The driver in the car lost control of their vehicle and began to fishtail until the car flipped and began to roll towards Sarah on the front lawn.

It all happened so fast that Sarah didn't have time to react. The girls were at the window screaming for their mother to get out of the way. Jareth turned his head and Jaime said softly, "Sometimes the way forward is also the way back..."

As the car was about to hit Sarah, her three daughters all shouted in unison, "_**STOP**_!"

Everything froze. The car literally stopped midair just inches from Sarah's face. Jennifer, Julia, and Sahara ran outside and began to panic, "Oh my god! What the hell! What just happened? Why is it so quiet? Are we all dead? Mommy, are you okay?"

Sarah was also frozen, but not like everything else. She was petrified about what had nearly occurred and what was occurring. She held her breath in her lungs and her eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of their sockets. Sarah fell backwards as Sahara, being the fast thinker, pulled her mother out of harm's way.

The three girls embraced their mother in an upheaval of tears. Sarah was shaking so hard that she couldn't hug them back as tightly.

Sure enough, everything was dead quiet. Not a sound was muttered, save but the whimpering of the girls and the footsteps of Jareth as he ran back towards Sarah on the sidewalk. The birds in the trees were frozen, the wind had stopped, and the neighbors mowing their grass had been paused in mid-movement. Sahara tried to touch the half-flipped car, as Sarah scolded, "Sahara! Get away from it!"

"Mom? Should we dial 9-1-1 or the police or something?" Julia asked.

Jennifer exclaimed, "It's like the whole universe just stopped! It this what happens when you die?"

Sahara was speechless. Jaime was about the only one who seemed perfectly calm. He blinked in the direction that he had heard the voices of his mother and sisters. Jareth was clutching the toddler close to him in his arms, when Jaime answered Jennifer, "No, Jenny. This is what happens when you reorder time."

"'Reorder time'?"

Sahara caught her breath again and muttered, "We've stopped time. We've willed it to stop. We have certain powers."

Jennifer shook her head, "But that only works if you say, 'I wish', right?"

Julia replied, "But remember who our dad is. Do you think…? You know… maybe we have those powers passed down to us through heredity…"

The three girls stammered out their theories and thoughts as Sarah and Jareth were in such a state of shock that neither offered comments or opinions into the conversation. Finally, little Jaime raised his hand and said, "No. No. _No_! You're all wrong! Mommy is the babe with the power."

Sarah and Jareth turned to the child inquisitively as the little boy continued, "And only you have the power to end this!"


End file.
